The Holy Bible and Membership Sunday

Scripture & Membership Sunday

The Church dedicates this Sunday to the Holy Bible.

Trinity Church dedicates this Sunday to Membership and Pledging.

Today’s Collect of the Day invites us to remember the Holy Scriptures; that they are “written for our learning”. Furthermore it enjoins us “so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life”.

Of course that reminds me of a story. When we were first ordained my friend Bernard had an Irish Setter. The dog’s name was Patrick. He was high strung; he seemed impossible to train beyond the basics. He had an insatiable appetite for furniture and when Bernie went about his appointed rounds, he often found the house a shambles when he returned. And so it was that on the eve of Scripture Sunday, which we observe today, Patrick got a hold of Fr Bernard’s new, leather bound edition of  Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal. He ate it. Bernard called me in a fit of exasperation and said that the dog must have known it was Scripture Sunday, because he took to heart and stomach the words “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest”. Patrick was inwardly digesting the Word of God. Alas, the meal did not seem to improve his temperament.   

“Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Word.” Daily to read the Scripture. Here’s a maxim I seek to follow; for every page of the newspaper, for every hour watching the news; read a page, spend an hour dwelling in the Word of God. If you are tired of all the bad news, balance your life with the Good News of God. “Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the Holy Scripture!

Follow the Daily Office Lectionary if you wish. Use Forward Day by Day. Spend time with God. Get into it. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Biblical Narrative. Remember the Five Might Acts of God as we rehearse them time and again, remembering God’s decisive action in Salvation History;

The Creation

The Exodus

Jesus

The Church

The Christian Hope

God’s Story and Your Story, inextricably intertwined as you come into Being and especially as you come into your Baptism.

Just look at today’s Scripture. Hannah’s depression, year after year. Unable to produce a male child and then to add insult to injury she had to endure the taunts of Peninnah who enjoyed producing children with ease. Hannah wept bitterly.

In due course she found herself at the Shiloh, a holy place. The episode is recorded with these words; 

“Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord; “O Lord of hosts, if only you will…remember me, and give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you…until the day of his death…Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently…therefore Eli thought she was drunk.”

Hannah remonstrated; 

“No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” 

Thankfully, Eli understood and honored her words and answered her, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”

You and I have been there with Hannah. Out of great vexation of spirit we too have prayed at the Altar of God. Grant us guidance, grant us strength, grant us our petition, our intercession. Grant us our prayer. 

And God always answers our prayers. Sometimes with an abundant “Yes” and at other times with a decisive “No”. 

Jesus had to face the reality of God’s “No” when he prayed; “May this cup may pass from me”. Jesus had to face into the bleak darkness of despair at the prospect of his own death on the cross; “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”.

How was he to know in his final moments that his suffering was but the vehicle not just for his salvation but for the Salvation of the Whole World?

In today’s Biblical moment, we see Hannah’s despair lead to Hannah’s hope. Her child Samuel is born.  The name literally means “the one I dedicate to God” or “the one who has a close affinity with God”. Hebrew being a symbolic and metaphorical language, the Name Samuel means both and more besides. 

Speaking of holy places and shrines, in today’s Gospel passage we hear that the Disciples are impressed with the great Temple as they enter Jerusalem.

But Jesus is not impressed. Rather he is deeply aware of history. In fact he was an astute observer of the political context in which he lived. He knew that the Romans would destroy the Temple in 70AD. He knew his history and he understood politics. Don’t be misled, he tells us. All kinds of false prophets will arise generation after generation. The simple fact of the matter is that “nation will rise against nation” one age will succeed another with predictable and tiresome succession. Don’t be fooled. 

We live in a time of vexation and distress. Too much water in the East. Not enough in the West. Today our hearts go out to the folks in Paradise, California. Scores dead. More than a thousand missing. Our son Michael lives in Sacramento and like tens of thousands others, he wears a mask when he goes outside, so foul is the air, so dense is the smoke. 

The end of this age as it seems to me, is more likely to be brought upon us by human activity, than it is by some punitive act of God. God is not responsible for climate change, wildfires, rising sea levels. Rather God seeks to save us from ourselves. As John’s Gospel reminds us; “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” ~John 3:17

Hannah prayed at Shiloh. Her hope is satisfied with the birth of Samuel.The Disciples come to the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus body is destroyed but the hope of the world rises again in Glory.

Today’s Epistle says this is what gives us “confidence to enter the sanctuary by…the new and living way that Jesus opened for us… and since we have a great priest over the household of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean…and our bodies washed with pure water.”

It has been my joy and care to serve many congregations in the Episcopal Church, as a member, a seminarian, and a priest.Cindy and I pledge of course. But my membership means more to me than a pledge. It means that I, like Sarah can pour out my soul to God, I can follow Jesus like his disciples did and learn from him. It is not just the buildings in which we worship, but as one of God’s living stones. We are joined heart to heart with one another and with God’s heart in the high Priesthood of Jesus. 

This is what gives us our confidence to approach the Throne of Grace day by day, Sunday by Sunday. So then, take up the holy Scriptures written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. Amen.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen. 

Fr Paul

P.S A Journey to Jesus

A list of congregations that have formed me as a member, seminarian, and priest. 

1. St James’s, Porter Square 1945-1955, Baptism
2. St Richard of Chichester, The Westway 1956-1967, Confirmation
3. St John’s Chapel, ETS 1967-1972, Graduation
4. St John’s Charlestown 1967-8
5. St Mary’s Manhattanville, NYC 1968-9
6. MGH Burns Unit 1969-1971
7. St Luke’s Malden 1972-1975, Ordination
8. Christ Church Quincy 1972-1975
9. Christ Church, Hyde Park 1975-1983
10. Epiphany Euclid OH 1983-1990
11. Holy Cross/Faith Memorial, Pawleys Island SC 1991-1992
12. St Andrew’s Methuen 1991-1994
13. St Mark’s St Albans WV 1994-2006
14. St Peter’s Salem MA 2006-2011
15. St Gabriel’s Douglassville PA 2011-2013
16. St Paul’s North Andover 2014-2015
17. St John’s Sandwich MA 2015-2016
18. Good Shepherd Reading, MA 2016
19. St Mark’s, Dorchester MA 2016
20. Trinity Canton 2017
21. St. Peter's Cathedral 2017
22. Trinity Haverhill 2018-

"All that I am and all that I have"

“All that I am and All that I have” 

When Cindy and I exchanged rings at our wedding ceremony 39 years ago, we said what the Book of Common Prayer asked us to say; “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer p. 427)

“All that I am and all that I have”. 

We all belong to one another and moreover we belong to God with “all that we are and all that we have.” 

We come to the time when we launch our Membership and Pledge campaign. I ask you to pray about these things. We are members of Christ and of one another. We are Christ’s Body; the Church, as my namesake tells us in Scripture (Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12). As you pray about your Membership and your Pledge, I ask you also to pray about how you may reach out to family, friends, neighbors and to perfect strangers. How indeed are we to fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea? (Habakkuk 2:14)

How might we reach out and exercise our ministry of Invitation? As “Jesus reached out his loving arms on the hard wood of the cross”, (Book of Common Prayer p. 101),  how might we reach out our loving arms to all? The invitation to belong to Jesus is not just to ourselves when we pledge and renew our church membership, but also to others as we seek to extend Christ’s Reign here on earth.

I needn’t tell you how urgent a matter it is to extend the Reign of God. Recent shootings in a house of worship in Pittsburg and in a night club in California remind us how urgent a matter it is to proclaim the love of God and the power of Jesus to heal us of all our soul’s diseases. 

Too many have turned away from that love. There is too much hate, anger and vitriol in our public discourse. There is too much untreated mental illness. We send our young off to war and when they come home they are left too often to put the pieces of their broken lives together all by themselves. We cannot wash our hands of any of these social ills.

The time for conversation is upon us. The time for invitation is now: a time to love, to forgive, to reconcile. And it is an urgent matter. The idea of Membership in Christ and generosity to the Church’s work is not a trivial matter but central to our core Mission. 

In our families, among our friends, and perfect strangers! All people, by whatever race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, class or language belong to God. 

We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God. 

The Poor Widow recognized this simple fact. She had two copper coins worth a penny. She gave it all to God. She belongs to God forever in the same way that we all do.

I was pleased to see that a significant number of Native Americans have been added to the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s election. When their land was taken away from them they were presented with a perplexity. In much of Native American culture, the land does not “belong” to anybody. This is why having an address is so foreign to many tribes. The land belongs “The Great Spirit”, the One we call God. We are but sojourners on the land. Anyone therefore who thinks that it “belongs” to them is laboring under an an exaggeration of self importance.

For example, Chief Seattle was asked to give large tracts of land to the White Man. He responded with his famous oration in 1854. It is one of the few statements recorded for posterity which helps us understand how those native to this land viewed “ownership”. Listen to his words;

“Yonder sky has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and to us appears changeless and eternal…Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains…Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man…cannot be exempt from the common destiny of humankind. We the Red Man and you the White Man may be brothers after all. We will see. Let your Great Chief be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless…To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground…Dead, did I say? No! There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

Chief Seattle recognized that everything, including our very lives are on loan to us. Furthermore he recognized that all tribes, nations and peoples are under the same God. It is futile for us to think of God as belonging to the White man or to the Red Man to the exclusion of others. God is as universal to the human condition as is the water with which life itself flows within us. 

The Book of Ruth is a Biblical case in point. Ruth is a Moabite woman; a foreigner. But she weds Boaz an Israelite. Their child Obed, became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David, and in a long line of ancestors Jesus is born under a Bright beautiful Star in Bethlehem. Jesus is a blend of blood lines, and becomes author of Salvation for ALL PEOPLE. 

The universal work of salvation that the Bible proclaims is true for all. We humans are still having difficulty in figuring out how generous God is to no matter who we are or where we are from.

The Poor Widow understood God’s generosity. Jesus pointed out when she put her copper coins worth but a penny into the treasury, she gave God, all that she was and all that she had.

So then whether we give large sums or two copper coins, we recognize that what we have is not ours to give, but a response to God’s generosity to us in the first place. 

All we are and all that we have belongs to God. 

If you are rich and you can give vast sums, thank you. I suspect that most of you, however are something less than rich. Thank you for your generosity. If you are poor, and you have never pledged before, that’s fine. Begin today with two copper coins. If you don’t have two begin with one. And thank you.

Jesus is watching you place who you are and what you have into God’s treasury. And Jesus alone recognizes how poor we are. Each and every one of us like the poor widow; “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

With all that I am and all that I have let us therefore render unto God the things that are God’s. 

Today marks 100 years since the Armistice. A moment of Remembrance now for the soldiers who gave all that they were and all that they had for us. 

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break the faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, thought poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul

The Eucharistic Lifestyle

Thanks-doing!

It is an exciting day! Your new Priest in Charge, Brian Raiche officially begins his ministry with you today and assumes the responsibilities and privileges that come with the office. Congratulations to you. It is a day worth celebrating. It is a whole new beginning!

As for me, the time has come to conclude my work with you and retire for the sixth time. 

Before I take my leave from this church, however, there is one last thing I would like to share with you. It is a lesson I struggle to remind myself of every single day of my life. It is a lesson the disciples had difficulty learning from the outset. We, the the followers of Jesus, often begin with our anxiety over one thing or another, how little we have and lets face it, we complain. Its too hot. Its too cold. There isn’t enough money. Work is getting to us. Somebody is driving us to distraction. And on and on it goes. 

On the other hand, Jesus begins with giving thanks and distributing what little there is, until all have their fill and then, when we collect the left overs there are 12 more baskets full, interestingly enough, one for each of the disciples. An ample amount to fill the needs of all. We called it a miracle then. But when we give thanks, miracles do happen. This is how Jesus satisfied the hunger of the 5,000. Days later there were 4,000 and the same anxiety attack strikes. Again they say we don’t have enough. Jesus upbraids them; do you still not get it? Give thanks for what you have, share it, and there will be more than enough for all and more besides.

There is a lesson in all this if we wish to live a Eucharistic life. And learn it we may, and remember it we must day after day if we wish to live the Joy of Jesus. My default position tends toward anxious fear over whether there will be enough. But Jesus always begins by giving thanks, breaking bread, and distributing what there is among all that are gathered. And there is always enough.

This lesson is at the heart of our humanity. At the birth of the savior the angels greet Mary and the Shepherds with the reassuring words “Fear not!”. Jesus says the same thing and repeats it time and again at his resurrection; “Fear not!”. In life as in death it is the same thing! And yet we retreat time and again back into our fears as if that were our default setting.

We are called to be the Easter People! Let me encourage you to remember that our Baptism calls us to give thanks with Jesus. This is our new default setting: to give thanks in all things and for all things. To do Eucharist is to do thanksgiving. This is at the heart of our very worship and spirituality. What is it we say?

“Lift up your hearts

"Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

"It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Alas, will we continue to be anxious and fretful over our household budgets? Of course! Will your vestry fuss over property and money matters. Most assuredly so. We’re likely to forget everything Jesus is trying to tell us.

But try to remember, it is not I who am encouraging you to begin with gratitude. It is Jesus who sets the example. It is the biblical narrative that sets the tone for gratitude throughout.

In today’s first lesson Isaiah reminds us of God’s abundant love;

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;”

Imagine! We have been consecrated to God’s service. There’s a reason for profound gratitude not only as servants of God in our every day lives, but as the folk the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Likewise the Psalmist exults in today’s appointed psalm;

“5 For you are my hope, O Lord God, *

my confidence since I was young.

6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;

from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *

my praise shall be always of you.”

And talk of exultation, listen to these soaring words from the Letter to the Hebrews which we heard read to us just moments ago;

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”

How can one’s heart be anything other than grateful to know the grace given unto us in our Baptism and in our Eucharistic fellowship?

The Gospel proclamation today tells us of a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. She stood up straight and of course she praised God. How could she not? The leader of the congregation, however fussed about healing on the sabbath day, when Jesus rather directly confronted him with theses words; 

“Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

Notice the joy, the praise and the rejoicing in all these encounters with the living God.

This is our invitation. When we are afraid or anxious over one thing or another, especially over the issue over whether there will be enough to go around, remember that Jesus tells us to begin with giving thanks, breaking bread, and sharing of whatever we have. Then, what seems like so little to us becomes an abundance for everyone.

Having said all this, I wonder how Cindy and I will make ends meet in the weeks and the months ahead. The extra income is nice. But having said that I am called to remember what I am telling you; anxiety over what little we have does not lead to sufficiency or abundance. Rather it is gratitude for what we do have and learning how to share that gratitude with others that leads to joy!

From the earliest days of my ministry and our marriage, we have given to God in proportion to what God has given us. The biblical tithe is 10%. That is a lot of money. But what about 5%. That’s still a lot of money, but since the beginning, we know that as we share in proportion to what we have been given, more always comes back to us by some miraculous calculus in God’s economy. As we cast our bread upon the waters we never cease to be amazed, perfectly amazed at how the gracious goodness of the Living God becomes an abundant source that provides not only enough of what we need, but also an abundant source beyond what we could possibly have imagined.

Which brings us up to this day. As you prepare for your pilgrimage together, please know that not all your days will be easy. I am reminded of the time when things were going rather badly for Moses. It was in Numbers, Chapter 11

“Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes…the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.’ (Never mind the brilliant series of miracles that brought the people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the wilderness, and the miracle of manna itself, which appeared each morning providing sufficiency for their hunger.) “Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents…So Moses said to the Lord, ‘Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child”, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, “Give us meat to eat!” I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favour in your sight.”

Bad case of clergy burnout there! So how did God handle this faith crisis? He spoke into the heart of Moses and said;

‘Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you. I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.  ~Numbers 11

A good example of community organizing there! As you become more and more of a congregation together, remember, this work is not the burden of the priest, the wardens and the vestry alone. This work is everyone’s work. 

God has consecrated all of you to this service.

Give thanks therefore in all things and miracles will happen for you right here at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Reading.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul

Do You Love God? A Stewardship Sermon

Do You Love God?

A Stewardship Sermon

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in the faraway land of Toronto, I was in High School, and my mother, God rest her soul, arranged for me to have a job in the local dry cleaner. I worked after school and on Saturday mornings. I made the princely sum of $12 per week for my labors and spoke one day to Fr. Fred, my priest, with some pride about the fruit of my labors.

His response surprised me. He said; "Do you love God?"

"Of course, you know I do."

"Then," he said, "you must give God 10% of your income."

"Excuse me!" I was, I admit a bit miffed at him.

"Yes," he insisted, "if you really love God, you must give him 10% of everything you earn. I didn't make up the rules, I'm merely telling you what the scripture says. 

"What of the widow's mite?" I replied, becoming a bit argumentative; not surprisingly. After all, he was becoming a bit intrusive into what I considered my privacy.

"If you read that story carefully," he said with a perfect calm, "you will notice, her gift was not a tithe, it was 100% of everything she had."

It was then that I began the long journey toward tithing. And I'm not quite there yet, Fr. Fred. And it was you told me then. It was and is because I love God.

We come today to All Saints Day and to the launch of our annual Stewardship Drive. 

Let me begin with our sainthood. In my experience of you since I began my time here on November 22 of last year, I have seen your sainthood. 

This is not to say that there is always perfect harmony within or among you, but I can tell you that you all care deeply about this church each in your own way. Sometimes your efforts are complementary to one another. Other times, there may be a rub against a somewhat jagged edge of personality. In seminary, we named the phenomenon "warm fuzzies" for those times when we hit it off just right, and "cold pricklies" for those times when we bristled against one another over one issue or another.

As to your sainthood. Let me share what I shared with the vesty on Thursday night; "You are like a diadem or a fine crystal. As we hold one another up to the Light of God, we will see refracted from it the glory of every color of the rainbow, as we might see in the dazzling complexity of a kaleidoscope." 

This is who you are. When I sing a song of the saints of God, I am singing of you. Again, this is not to say that you are perfect. God knows, I'm nowhere near trying to say that about you or me. But, as an old friend of mine used to say of the mission of the church; "We are not so much here to make good people better as we are to make real people holy". Or as a fine old priest used to put it; "If God is to make a Saint, God has to begin with a sinner. If that's the case, there's no better place to begin than with me." You are all an amazing collection of characters. There are those who will say the same of me.

But one thing I do know is that we all love God.

The Gospel for the day gives us a snapshot of Jesus and his power over sin and death. In one of the most moving moments of scripture, we read the shortest sentence in the entire Bible. When told of his friend's death, we are told simply; "Jesus wept." Then still deeply disturbed at the loss of his friend, Jesus prays in gratitude to God that this moment had come and declares; "Lazarus, come out." And out he comes still bound in the bandages of all his sins. And Jesus commands them; "Loose him and let him go!"

From the Song of Solomon the Wise we read; "The souls of the righteous are indeed in the hand of God and no torment shall ever touch them". As the saints of God, you and I are always in the hand of God. This I consider to be a perfect segway into this time of Stewardship. Stewardship is about far more than money. You can talk to Cindy if you want to talk about our family budget or about our charitable giving. She is far more practical than I am. Typically while I am praying and journaling in one corner of the room, she is checking our online banking activity in the other corner of the room. I submit to you, both activities are two sides of the same coin of our spirituality! I use the word "coin" advisedly!

Stewardship is about faith as well as funding.

Here is an example of what I mean.

Years ago when I was still a young priest and didn't really have much experience taking folks to the threshold of heaven. One day I received a phone call from the hospital in Euclid, Ohio where I was serving at the time. I was invited to come to the side of a dying woman by a physician on staff at that hospital. As it happened he was a doctor from India, and he and his family were members of the Church of Mar Thoma that is to say, The Church of St. Thomas, a church which is in full communion with the Episcopal Church. I didn't know any of this at the time. But no matter, there was a woman at death's door and I was summoned to her side. 

As I arrived at her bedside, I was introduced to the gathered members of her family. The physician explained to me that she and their father spent their whole lives seeing to it that they were well educated so that they could one day come to America and realize their dreams. Many dreams did come true, and then it all came to this moment.  They were all professionals. One, the physician who called me, there were several executives in the business world; one from IBM, there was a professor from Case Western University, there was an attorney and on it went. There we gathered. As I went to the woman's side, she gave me a glance that a priest dreads, or at least I did then. She recognized what was happening and she was seized with terror. I really didn't know what to do, but that faithful family knew what to do. They began by reading those parts of scripture she loved the most, the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, all her favorite Psalms. Her lips moved with theirs in something akin to synchonicity. Though greatly weakened, her spirit moved in theirs and they shared the love that was in the moment. And then they sang songs to her. Songs she taught them when she dandled them on her knee when they were children. 

As the time went on, one of the children was overcome with spiritual and emotional exhaustion. He left the room and I went with him. He told me that he just couldn't take it any more. And then, my priesthood finally kicked in. I told him take to a break. "Take all the time you need. When you come back, let God be your strength. After all, you are utterly spent. But you and I both know that our strength is not from ourselves, it comes from God and God alone."  He returned with me then and there.

The moment then came for me to offer the prayers at the time of death. They are in the Book of Common Prayer on page 462. There is a beautiful Litany there and then finally these words;

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;

In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you;

In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;

In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.

May your rest be this day in peace,

    and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

The final grace of the moment was that as she drew her last breath, her eldest daughter exclaimed, as she looked up; "Look, there goes momee into heaven!"

There was then a paroxysm of grief, embraces of love, an expression of gratitude to me for being there with them to share the moment and then we went on with life.

So why would I tell you this story for the launch of our steawadship campaign? First, I wanted to share with you what I have learned of how to be there with those in extremis. Secondly, it is also because when I got home last Sunday after a good solid weekend of discharging my pastoral responsibilities, I had just put up my feet to watch the last few moments of the Patriots' game and then, by God the phone rang. A nurse told me that Eileen Kittredge was failing fast. I looked at Cindy and said, "You know we've got to go back again." And so we got into the car and made our way back to JML in Falmouth from Lynn. We didn't get back home again until quite late. It was a long day. But God gave us the strength to do was we needed to do.

Why do I tell you these stories? It is because Cindy's mom took a turn for the worse this week as well, and we had to make our way to Exeter NH and work out the particulars of her admission to hospice. It is because I went by to see Louise Velsor and visit with her. She is failing too, but it looks like it will be a while yet for her.

It is because others of us are struggling with our mortality and the mortality of those we love. It is because we are all that close to heaven all the time. Just a heartbeat, just the faintest breath next to heaven.

Cindy and her mom have used a few hasty words through this portion of her journey to heaven. And forgiveness and reconciliation have become a matter of some urgency. I told Cindy that when it came to hasty words, my mother and I were often a maelstrom of hastiness. And the business of forgiveness and reconciliation continues to be an ongoing exercise spirituality.

Which brings me back to Fr. Fred's question. "Do you love God?"

"You know I do."

It's not just 10% of our income that belongs to God, it's 100% of our whole lives that belong to God.

If I tell you my love is about my faith, Cindy will tell you her love is also about the checkbook. If its not about the money what's it about? If its not about our membership in Christ what's it about?

If its not about bringing one another to the Gate of Heaven, what's it about? If its not about recognizing that the Kingdom of Heaven is always at hand as Jesus said it was, what then is it about?

And then on my last visit with Eileen, after all the prayers, all the psalms and favorite bible readings, and just before the final commendation, I leaned over to her and sang into her ear. By the way, the hearing is the last to go so watch what you say around them; I sang in her ear; "Jesus loves me, this I know; for the bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me."

And so dear Fr. Fred question stands;

"Do you love God?"

"Yes, you know that I love God".

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.

Fr Paul.