The Gift of Presence

“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

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, those with us and those who have gone before us. Yes, we are in Advent and yes, it is important that we observe the Advent season with the holy commitment due in itself and not merely as preliminary to Christmas. Still, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, those with us and those who have gone before us for they are alive in the Lord. Merry Christmas, Saint Nicholas of Myra. Merry Christmas, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Merry Christmas all you past and present saints of Good Shepherd, Hayesville.

Every Christmas Day we hear John’s Christmas story. No trek of the Holy Family from Nazareth to Bethlehem. No donkey ride for Mary. No inn, no manger, no shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks, no angel choirs. No star in the night sky and no gift-bearing visitors from the east coming at Epiphany. Most of everything we usually think about when we recall and share the story of the incarnation is missing from John’s Christmas story. It does not seem suited for a Hallmark movie of the week or even a Hallmark card. How would a children’s program enact this story before adoring parents and grandparents? Good thing we have Matthew and Luke’s stories.

Yet, there it is according to John. Merry Christmas! The fullness of God in Jesus has moved into the neighborhood. He has pitched his tent and in more ways than one. He has pitched his tent by choosing to take on human form and he has pitched his tent by choosing to live among us. This twofold enfleshment, embodiment, incarnation, is the gift of God becoming one of us and living among us. The incarnation, then, is both personal and relational. It is personal in that God came as a person and it is relational in that the person of God came to dwell among us as a family member. God incarnate is not someone who buying the home next door is seen only coming and going as the garage door opens and closes.

The sense of the Greek term for dwelling suggests someone who regularly comes over for dinner, someone you share raising your children with, someone who is there for you when there is celebration and there is loss. Long before State Farm, like a good neighbor, the incarnate God is there.

The spirit of the incarnation, then, is properly about being present and being involved. As followers of Christ, we acknowledge and welcome at Christmas the one who came among us to be one of us and to be for us. As followers of Christ, we live that spirit of the incarnation by being among and for others as Christ was and is. Think about who you know who could use the gift of your presence this Christmas. May your presence be a present to them and to you this Christmas season and beyond.

Merry Christmas,
Fr. Bill+

Oblation

ob·la·tion
noun: a thing presented or offered to God.

The Hebrew scriptures contain many passages about things offered to God. The system of sacrifice and offering described in the book Leviticus is a bit complex with its many commands about what to offer and when for expressions of thanksgiving, restoration, guilt, and for making atonement. I remember from my seminary days when our liturgy professor would check our homework by asking for a so-called “wave” offering (Lev. 8:27). He would say “Show me your homework by wave offering” and we would hold up and wave our homework papers like they were a sheaf of grain.

In actual practice, the Temple priests would take the wave offering and wave it before the Lord in thanksgiving on behalf of the people. One occasion for the wave offering was following the first harvest of the year. This was the barley harvest and corresponded to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. People would present a sheaf of barley grain as an offering of the “first fruits” - the best - of that harvest.

In the Gospels, we hear of another form of oblation. For several weeks recently in our Sunday readings, we have heard Jesus talk about his own self-oblation. He tells his disciples several times that he is to be betrayed, handed over to the authorities, made to suffer and be killed. He tells them plainly that he gives his life for the sake of others (Mk 10:45).

The Letter to the Hebrews makes much of the comparison and contrast of the offering of Jesus Christ and the Levitical priesthood. Unlike the repeated sacrifices in the Temple, his life self-offered is the perfect sacrifice once made for atonement that ends the need for all further atoning sacrifices (Heb 7:27).

In their differing ways, each of the Eucharistic prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, makes mention of this oblation. You will read this most fully stated in the Rite I prayers but it is found in all of them when they speak of his sacrificial and atoning death. Like the Hebrew scriptures that call for the participation of the people in making an offering, the Gospels invite all into the practice of self-oblation. Jesus invites all who would be his people to take up the cross and follow him. That is an invitation to imitate and walk in the pathway of self-offering that Jesus walked.

As people who make self-oblation, like Jesus Christ we offer our selves, our souls and our bodies, for the sake of the Gospel. The Gospels tell us that this is neither easy to accept nor to live out without some good measure of grace. The disciples failed to understand Jesus’ talk of his death and resurrection. They likely failed to initially grasp what he meant when he reinterpreted the offering of bread and wine as an offering of himself.

The self-oblation of God is a deeply mysterious thing and one that distinguishes the Christian faith from others. Our own walking the way of Jesus and practicing self-oblation is also a mysterious thing but understand that our gathering for the celebration of Holy Eucharist plays an important role in this. When we gather and receive the sacrament, we are being lifted up, encouraged, prayed for, forgiven, healed, and fed with grace so that we may be sent out to do the work God has given us to do - to go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All then that we do, when we are mindful of who we are and who we serve, can be a self-oblation and the stuff of a life lived as an offering to God.

Grace and peace and self-oblation be yours,
Fr. Bill+

Exile

“These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.’ ” - Jeremiah 29:1,4-7

To borrow a phrase from a popular insurance company commercial, the people of God know a thing or two about exile because they have seen a thing or two about exile. Exile - a forced separation from home and life in a foreign land - happens many times in the story of God’s people. Beginning early with Adam and Eve, the people of God are exiled from their home. Individuals such as Jacob and Joseph and Moses find themselves exiled and living long periods in foreign lands. And later, the exile of an entire nation is experienced first by the northen Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and then the southern Kingdom of Judah in 587 BC. The people of God know a thing or two about exile, about what it is like to be separated from and long for their home.

As the continuing people of God, we too are experiencing our days of exile. Eighteen months and counting. I was hopeful in the spring of 2020 that our exile would be short lived. I hoped that by midsummer we would be back at church in worship and fellowship. And I now realize how much that must be like the hopes of previous generations of God’s people who across time have found themselves forced into exile by some external circumstance. As much as we have faithfully faced shortterm challenges from within, we now face a long-term challenge for our time that comes from without.

The prophet Jeremiah writes to the exiles in Babylon with God’s words of wisdom to help them live through their exile. They are words for us today. These are not the best of times, but they are also not the worst of times for most people. Yes, there have been deep and grievous losses for some. Yes, the isolation and loneliness are deep and painful for some. God bless them with grace and peace and hope.

Jeremiah’s words from God bid all of us to live our lives. Live our lives as best we can. Even in these times, celebrate life and make a joyful noise. We have been doing that at church. We have been living. We have been offering fellowship and formation and service to the community within and without. We have been praying and worshiping and even singing when that seemed prudent. We have adapted and we have adapted some more. We have been here for you and remain here for you. We have made a life for ourselves in this time of exile.

I am deeply grateful for all who have been part of this past eighteen plus months. You have been resilient and have shown incredible faithfulness. I now ask something more. Not different, but more. Our church, our communities, and our nation need your prayers more now than ever. Like people in exile, we are not living as we want to live, but pray. Church is not as we want church to be, but pray. Our people are suffering and our communities are suffering, but pray. Our nation is not what it ought to be, but pray. Pray for the welfare of our church and all churches. Pray for all our neighbors. And pray for all in authority who lead our nation. God says that it is in welfare of these that we will find our welfare.

The people of God know a thing or two about exile. They know that one day the exile will be over. God promised that the people of God would one day come home. History tells us that God’s word is true. God’s people came home more than once or twice or three times. I believe God will do it again. God brings light to darkness and life out of death. God is the God of resurrection. Until then and while we wait in faith, making the best of life that we now have, pray for the church and know that we are here for you.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+

The Smallest of Things

Again Jesus said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32

Like many other sayings of Jesus, one may look again at this passage and wonder what can be said this time that has not already been said so many times before - so many times before that the audience tunes out. Passages like these are a challenge not so much because of their difficulty but because of their familiarity. A not unexpected approach to this text would focus on the size of the seed and contrast that small size with the very large size of the full-grown plant and would then make the non surprising parallel with the small group of disciples gathered around Jesus and great size of the church as it has become a global institution.

This is all fine and good and can be used toward a number of exhortations about faith, hope, trust, and patience among other virtues. But I am thinking that the text has more to say and that its details testify to its genius. Small things matter. For the Kingdom of God to become a place where all the metaphorical birds perch in its metaphorical branches, small things matter. For our parish to realize its potential in our day and for our individual spiritual lives to deepen, small things matter. And not just any small thing, but the smallest of things and their small progress.

I have been reading recently about the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. It is a compound word of “kai” meaning change and “zen” meaning good. Kaizen is the philosophy of making small changes by setting small goals, thinking small thoughts, asking small questions about how to reach those goals, and using the smallest of means toward small steps on a longer path. As it turns out, kaizen is highly effective toward making desired changes whereas radical, innovative, and large changes often fail. Kaizen is the wisdom of fable of The Tortoise and the Hare. Slow and steady really does win the race. Small and steady get us where we are going.

It is the same wisdom expressed in the saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” In organizations following kaizen, each person is expected to share in the culture of small things by looking and asking again and again “what small things can be done to improve the work place.” Each observation may be the smallest of things but multiply that small thing by each day at work and by the number of people employed. For an individual, small good changes lead to more small good changes on the way to accomplishing that thousand mile journey. Similarly, small changes compounded by the many can transform a great organization into one that is truly exceptional. And because each change is so small, it hardly seems to require much effort. One mustard seed, a cup of soil, some water and sunshine. What about then planting another seed? Just one and then another. It is a small thing, but Jesus teaches that small things planted for the Kingdom produce big results.

We are entering our customary season of stewardship. I ask for all to do something small this year. Someone once said that the simplest yet perhaps most important prayer one can offer is “Thank you.” Say a word of thanksgiving to God for God’s protection and provision over this past year. I know there have been some great losses during this time, and for some the word of thanksgiving in that loss may be for the life of their loved one and God’s presence with them in that very hard time. But start with the smallest of expression of gratitude and then ask “What next?”

Ask the Spirit for guidance and listen to your hearts. If you are not in the practice of meeting God in scripture, try the smallest of things by reading just one sentence from one of the Gospels. Maybe there is some small action or a small increase in the giving of time, talent, and treasure that you come to feel is your “what next.” Listen to that inner voice. Jesus speaks of the power of small things. I believe small things - small steps, small prayers, small actions - multiplied by the many of us can lead an already blessed community into being even more the beloved community of God.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+

Wonderment

I remember an occasion from many years ago when Susan and I were visiting a friend. One day we went out to do some shopping and her young son strapped in his car seat was launching a constant stream of questions with a simple “why?” It seemed that after every patient answer she gave, his little mind would wonder some more and out of his little mouth would come another “why” as if he were probing deeper and deeper into the mysteries of life, as if each answer given was not sufficient for his ever curious brain. Somewhere along our travels, he fell asleep and the whys ended. Ended briefly, that is. When we reached the mall and our friend woke her son, his first sound was “why” as if one from earlier had failed to launch.

The Bible calls us children and Jesus says the Kingdom of God belongs to children. Children we are and child-like with wonderment we should be. A friend once described to me what retirement was like for him. He asked, “Do you remember what Saturday was like when you were a kid?” I replied, “Yes.” He then said, “It is like that but there is no homework due on Monday.”

That sounds like some sweet freedom to play and to explore, to not take everything so seriously, not even ourselves and how we succeed or fail. The next day is Saturday too. And what long days those are when without the pressure to perform and to get things done, we can pause and nap and goof off and maybe even see and hear things we otherwise are just too rushed, just too worried, just too accomplished to see and hear. There could even be space in there for us to wonder our whys. We should ask more whys. We should have that child-like endless curiosity that launches those whys. And maybe it is just fine that we do not have an answer. Maybe it is more important that we have another why, that our amazement and curiosity and playfulness do not come to an end.

Some of us, including me, should probably play hooky from our responsibilities and tend to our amazement and curiosity. We should take time away from our doing and fixing and take a little more time for our being. There is no homework due on Monday and if there is, oh well, there are other important things life, like doing nothing and simply experiencing awe. Jesus is not going to flunk us either way. If you find something amazing let others know that they may wonder with you. Say, “Everybody, look!” Too many of us are so busy adulting that we miss the good stuff that God has prepared to delight God’s children.

So, like the old Paul Harvey program I will close by letting you know that that young boy with all the whys is now a Boeing engineer. He is working on virtual reality technology and sharing with his wife the rearing of two young daughters. I hope they do to and for him what he did to and for his mom and me - the reminder of wonderment and why.

Grace and peace and wonderment to you,

Fr. Bill+

Wonderment

Page 3

The Shepherd’s Voice

Gratitude

I am grateful for so many reasons. The past sixteen months of Covid-19 have brought forth opportunity after opportunity for our church members to express creative ways of being the people of God here at church and in the community. We are a flexible and adaptive bunch. I am grateful for all those who have been a great help to me and to others as we carried on with worship of God and service to others. So many of you pitched in where you could, doing things that you had not done before, and showing a willingness to serve wherever and however that might be helpful toward creating opportunities for us to gather here at church and to bring the grace of God to people beyond our parish. I am grateful.

I am grateful for the generosity you have shown with your time, talent, and treasure. Many of you have continued to give generously of your time to take good care of our church building and grounds. While there was less use of our physical resources those always require care and maintenance. And I am grateful to those who continued to support this parish financially. I understand that some have been unhappy with the rules under which we have operated during this pandemic and I understand that unhappiness can be expressed in a number of ways including redirecting your treasure to another organization. May God be blessed and God bless you for your generosity however and wherever expressed.

I am grateful for our Bishop. The ministry of a bishop is to be the chief pastor of a diocese. In our case, that means that Bishop Jose has the care of over fourteen thousand souls in his hands in addition to the management of the diocese in all its mission and ministry. Having spent time with him on many occasions, I can say that he takes seriously his role as pastor. His care is sincere and deep. I have not always agreed with his decisions, but I do not doubt that he is doing what he prayerfully discerns he is called to do to safeguard those under his care. I am sure this past sixteen months has been hard on him and I am grateful that he has carried the burden with grace and good humor.

I am grateful for your church staff and your vestry. They have served under difficult and frequently changing circumstances and always with a good spirit. May God bless the souls of those who took a voluntary furlough. By their sacrifice and your generosity we have been able to meet all our expenses during this time without the external financial help that other organizations have required.

I am especially grateful for Tawanna for moving her workplace into her home and managing to do a great job while working remotely. While there have been many jokes and funny videos shared about how people have been working remotely, like working all day in the pajamas or only dressing from the waist up, I do know something from my former academic career of how isolating and stressful working from home can actually be.

Your vestry has been nothing but supportive and wise. I am grateful that they have so carefully led during this time and I deeply regret that their time on the vestry has not been, in my guess, as spiritual and as gratifying as their predecessors have reported. May God restore the years that the virus has taken (Joel 2:25, sort of).

Please know that I am grateful for the many ways I trust you have been a faithful follower of Christ in ways known and ways unknown. God alone is the beginning and the end of all good, and God alone is our witness. So, wherever you are and whatever you decide, whether to return or to stay home or to move on, know that I am grateful for the good that God does for you and through you. It has been days, and weeks, and months of grace. May God continue to bless you and all of God’s people.

God’s holiness be yours,
Fr. Bill+

Images of God

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Then Jesus said to those who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32

Someone near and dear to me has speculated more than once about the nature of heaven. To paraphrase one of their thoughts, “What if you get the heaven you believe in?” Jesus did not say much about the afterlife and that does leave much to imagine. Will Saint Peter meet us at pearly gates? Can you get there on roller skates? Whatever else heaven will be like, it will be the place where the reign of God will be in full force.

It is that kind of speculation that reminds me that Christians hold all sorts of different beliefs about the character of God, about what God values, and about what it means to live a faithful life. There is ample and growing evidence that suggests many people believe that God values the same things they value. The difficulty is in deciding which came first, God’s values or ours. That diversity may at times cause conflict among the faithful as we seek to discern in community what it means to be and remain faithful, but it also creates a rich field for study that may help us understand and overcome some of those troubles.

Neuroscience, neuro-theology, psychology and other fields of science are discovering the many ways that our beliefs affect our brains and how our brains affect our beliefs, and how both in turn affect our physical, mental, and relational well-being. It appears that what you have been taught about and what you believe about God matters for your health.

So, what is your image of God? Is God, compassionate and loving, full of mercy and slow to anger, abounding in kindness? Or perhaps, you hold a view of God as a powerful, angry, judging, and punishing deity who notes your every sin? Maybe like me, you know both images of God. The latter is the God of my childhood and that is deeply imbedded in my being. And so, as a child it was, “Thank you, Jesus, for saving me from your Father’s wrath.”

I appreciate that scripture says many things. But it says some things more clearly than others. “God is love.” “The truth will make you free.” “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Knowing the truth - that God is love, that Jesus taught love and not fear - will set you free. You have God’s word on it. Again and again, Jesus says not to be afraid, but to love. Love God, love your neighbor, love your enemy, and even love yourself.

As it turns out, belief in a loving God is associated with being a less fearful person. Brain research shows that focusing on love and compassion strengthens the connections in the brain associated with loving and compassionate thought and action. And it is that part of the brain where we find the wiring for love and compassion that also regulates our fear response. Focusing on, thinking about, and believing in love and compassion strengthens those faculties and is a way of overcoming fear. I am delighted when science finds, as it does here, what scripture has already revealed. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” John 1:4-18.

It seems that my friend is onto something. You do, in a way, get what you believe in. The good news is that positive beliefs can be strengthened and those not yet learned can be learned. With some discipline, unhealthy beliefs can be changed - all to the benefit of our mental, physical, and relational well-being. Thanks be to God.

Grace and peace,

Fr. Bill+

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+