Snake Handling

“Snake Handling!”

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

When Joshua, #2 son, was well into his rebellious teen years, he came one day to the church’s Adult Bible Study. The class was open to everybody including the intellectuals as well as to the more evangelical sorts, and all the rest. There was some discussion of a biblical story that stretched our credulity, I do not recall just now which one it was…perhaps the one about Jonah and the Whale, but my son expressed some doubt over the literal truth of the story. One of the more rabid evangelicals in the group admonished my son to believe or else. Josh, being Josh, chose the “or else” option.  Then he tossed the bible on the table, somewhat irreverently, and said; “It’s just another book!” The evangelical expressed outrage and a vigorous discussion ensued, folks lining up on both sides of the literalist divide. that was way back when in West Virginia, where such discussions were not unusual. I found the whole thing delightful. 

I was so proud of Joshua and said so. He insisted on thinking! I encouraged him to think critically about everything. I encourage everyone to think critically!

Joshua loves to read. He always did. All books are sacred to him. He comes from a very long line of people who think that way. The Celtic monks, for instance, who transcribed much of Western Literature during the so-called “Dark Ages” preserved much of what we have left of the Classics, not only The Bible, but also the Greek and Roman Classics. All written words are sacred. 

I introduced Joshua to the Gilgamesh Epic so he would know that the Biblical Narrative is based, in part, on literature predating it by many centuries. Written as early as 2100BC it is the earliest Epic poem known to scholars. It contains a Creation Story and a Story of the Flood. It deals with the quest for eternal life and the fact of death, the search for deliverance from oppression and injustice and other such Biblical themes. 

The literary fragments of the Bible, the stories, ideas and themes, all come together over a very long time. The Pentateuch, The Histories, the Wisdom Literature, the Psalter, the Prophets and so on were at long last collected into a set of scrolls we call the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Then of course there was the Christ event, the Pauline record of interaction with Christians throughout the Mediterranean world, the Gospels, and that curious Book of Revelation written during the first persecutions so often misinterpreted and misunderstood. The word “Biblia” from which we derive the word “Bible” means library. It was not given to us via some sort of Divine Federal Express delivery system. The Bible came to us over time and from many sources.

There are stories that do stretch one’s credulity from time to time, and we have one in today’s Hebrew Scripture. The story of serpents in the wilderness is a case in point for me. Especially, the part about God asking Moses to take a serpent and lift it up on a Bronze Pole.  Anyone who got bit by a serpent, merely by looking at the pole would be just fine! Oh really!

Still there is something in the story that seems to “catch” something of our nature as human beings. We complain. That’s understandable for folks wandering in the wilderness. There was no food, no water, and they were facing death. Just try living a few days without power in the Merrimack Valley and the see what happens. It is downright dangerous to upset the well defined routine of the general population. Tragically, it seems, there is always someone who dies from carbon monoxide poisoning or suffers a heart attack from over exertion shoveling heavy wet snow and the like. The serpents who bite are not just the kind we might find in the Ancient Near Eastern world. There are “serpents” of all sorts that can “bite” into human vulnerability during our own wilderness experiences in the wake of these Nor’easters that have assaulted us recently.

We erect our own bronze poles and warn one another about the proper placement of generators and over exertion when you get to be my age and beyond. 

If we understand the Sacred Writings at their deeper and more metaphorical levels we have much to learn from them. As my dear friend, the late Professor Harvey Guthrie used to say of the Hebrew Scripture during my seminary career; “We do not take the Bible literally. We take it seriously!”

So too it seems did Jesus. As the story stood in the Sacred Writings so it stood for him as we read in today’s Gospel. “Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” The vast majority of Hebrew scholars down through the ages understood every word of Scripture as informing the meaning of all the others. In today’s Gospel the Rabbinical mind of Jesus referenced the moment in the wilderness when Moses lifted up the serpent. 

What is going on here in this Gospel? Think about it. Jesus understood that he must suffer. He understood that we must all suffer. When we ask why God allows us to suffer, we ignore something central to the Gospel. The very symbol of our salvation is the Cross. Jesus did not find a way around suffering. Jesus found a way through it!

And note this. The juxtaposition of the lifting up of Jesus with the next sentence in the Gospel is striking. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

How compelling is this proclamation for us. Suffering and redemptive love exist entwined in a living dynamic. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it but that the world might be saved through him. 

Do we love the world like Jesus did? Or have we become so jaded and cynical that we capitulate to the darkness. It is tempting do so so. But we are children of the light. 

Which brings us to today. Unfettered gun violence in the streets; the nation’s schools, concerts, movie theaters and churches! And the hammerlock held on Congress by the NRA! The prospect of a conversation between the likes of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. If that doesn’t shake your soul I don’t know what will. How can any of us talk about salvation in our current historic context? Rising sea levels, and one hundred year storms every few weeks it seems…I could go on.

But listen; “God so loved the world”. Imagine it! If God so loved the world why wouldn’t we? If the snake in the wilderness is lifted up, and if Jesus is likewise lifted up, perhaps there is hope that we might love the world like God did and does still. In fact God requires it, under the authority of Jesus, you and I shall love the world as much as he did. And we shall we love one another as much as he did.   And as the old spiritual put it; “We shall overcome!”

And how much did Jesus love the world? That brings us back to the cross, doesn’t it? Redemptive love and suffering become a unified dynamic in Jesus. Lift him up dear ones so that all the world might see. He stretched out his loving arms on the hard wood of the cross so that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace.

The fulcrum on which the love of God turns on how much we are willing to love the world and one another.

We are all God has left. I am persuaded that all who dwell in the darkness of sin and self will remain there until they see some glimmer of light. Paul tells us in today’s Epistle; “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived.” 

But you are the children of Light. You are the repository of the Dream of God. Let your light so shine before others that they may see the good you do and glorify the One who came to save us.

You see, salvation is not a fait accompli, a done deal, as it were.  It is rather a Way. It is the Way of Jesus. It is the Way, the Truth and the Life. You cannot get there, or be there on the Way unless you are filled with the love of God and the love of one another. 

Joshua and I still have our faith and our doubt. They live side by side along the Way. Funny thing though, when the chips are down Joshua calls me for a prayer like the day his best friend was in a very serious automobile accident. We spent the night in prayer keeping the vigil of hope against hope. Thank God I will be officiating at Chris’s wedding later this May. Chris too is now a child of faith. I prayed of course and then I encourage Joshua  and Chris to pray too. Thus we journey on the way, the truth and the life together.

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

Fr Paul

Overturning Tables in The Temple

In the Name of One God; The Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

“Over-turning the Tables in the Temple!”

What a Sunday to begin! Somebody; if I start turning tables over at the coffee hour, remind me not to take the Bible so literally!

My son David is the Senior Warden at St. Mary’s Church in Dorchester. So last week being my last “free” Sunday for a while, we worshipped with him and later went to brunch. Naturally, I had to search out the indoor plumbing. You know you’re in Boston when you go to the “men’s room” and discover it is not the men’s room after all. Where you would typically see the universal symbol for men or women on a bathroom door, instead you see a symbol half of which is for the male of the species, and the other half, female. The sign below the curious symbol reads; “Whatevah”.

The conversation we’re having in the church and the culture around it about gender and orientation is reaping interesting and renriching ways of looking at one another. I hope we are also learning that the old pigeon holes we put each other into are beginning to disappear. 

The phenomenon is not new to us. It is as old as the Gospel. St Paul put it this way; “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:27,28.

When Paul references “Jew and Greek” he is not merely speaking of those two racial/ethnic delineations, he is speaking of all races and ethnicities. “We are all one!”

When Paul speaks of “slave and free”, he is not only speaking of those with freedom and those without, he is speaking of all folks in every economic class; rich and poor and everyone in between. “We are all one!”

And when Paul speaks of “male and female”, the same spirit is present. I would argue that Paul speaks up for all of us in the entire rainbow of human identity, inclusive of the LGBT community, which for so long has been persecuted and marginalized inside and outside the church. Did you not notice? There it is; right at the outset, in the beginning, as it were; the Gospel proclamation; “We are ALL one!”

Jesus overturned many tables and not just those in the Temple that day. The Gospel overturns our whole way of looking at one another. The Church Jesus planted overturned the tables of all human hatred. Right here at the heart of our love for one another; Jesus places himself on the Cross. Race, class, gender, orientation; this is not how Jesus saw us. Like an old Arab woman once told us when on Pilgrimage in the Holy Land in answer to the question; “What is the color of God?”

She replied; “The color of God is the color of water!” 

Today’s story; The Cleansing of the Temple occurs in all four Gospels. In John it occurs at the outset of Jesus’ ministry in the second chapter, and sets the tone for his whole life. In the Synoptics on the other hand; Matthew, Mark and Luke the event occurs at the conclusion of Jesus ministry. The confrontation of Jesus with the money changers and the Temple Authorities seals his fate and in a few short days there is a trial, a crucifixion, a death and a glorious resurrection! Talk about turning the whole world upside down!!!

I remember when we were in Seminary we fought for civil rights. Jonathan Daniels, a senior student had been shot to death the previous year to my matriculation, for protecting a young black girl. Violence and guns have been around for a very long time and has taken a vast toll on human life. We alone among developed countries kill one another off at the alarming of rate of tens of thousands each year. When I returned from Canada to attend seminary, gun deaths there could be counted in multiples of 10. Still can. Why is that? The young people of Parkland High and our Bishops call us to action. What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do we not understand anyway? Bad enough that there are well over 300,000,000 weapons out there. Worse still that we do not execute the full measure of the Second Amendment which calls for “A well regulated militia”. Until we make sure that the Second Amendment exists under the authority of that clause, the slaughter will continue. Folks we need to join the kids from Parkland and “March for our Lives”!

During the struggle for racial equality John Burgess was elected the first Black bishop in the Episcopal Church. He ordained me a priest in the church of God more than 45 years ago. I thank God for that for so many reasons. His consecration raised many an eyebrow among lots of white folks. 

Then it fell to us to begin exploring the possibility of the ordination of women. The church had fits over the ordination of the Philadelphia eleven and the Anglican Communion has yet to get over it in many quarters.

Then there was this. My uncle was what we called then “a confirmed bachelor”. This was way back in the 1950’s. More recently two of my children broke it to me; “Dad I’m gay”. One was afraid of how Cindy and I would take the news. The other told us to take it or leave it. More recently, I officiated at the wedding of one of Cindy’s sisters and her partner is another woman and they too love one another very much! Good heavens, and I say that advisedly, I’ve been around the LGBT community all my life. If ever there were a non issue in our family, this is it. Yet, in some quarters, the Church and the culture around it have gone downright apoplectic over the idea of celebrating God’s embrace of all people. 

We’ve been over turning tables in the Temple for a very long time. By what authority do we do this? Under what authority did Jesus make his whip of cords and chase out the money changers and those who traded in pigeons and the like? 

In the synoptics, when Jesus cleansed the Temple he told them plainly; “My House shall be a House of Prayer for ALL People” (emphasis mine). Jesus did not pick that turn of phrase out of thin air. He quoted scripture to show by what authority he did these things; specifically Isaiah chapter 56. The prophet considered the question of foreigners and eunuchs in the household of God. Both the Levitical and Deuteronomic Law Code separated foreigners and eunuchs from the sacred assembly. But not Isaiah and certainly not Jesus!!! Listen to this passage from the Prophet Isaiah; 

“Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,

   ‘God will surely separate me from his people’;

and do not let the eunuch say,

   ‘I am just a dry tree.’ 

For thus says the Holy One:

To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,

   I will give a monument and a name

   better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

   that shall not be cut off. 

And the foreigners who join themselves to God,

   I will bring them to my holy mountain,

   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

   for all peoples.”

And then in the next verse the Prophet says;  

“Thus says the Holy One,

   who gathers the outcasts of Israel,

I will gather others to them

   besides those already gathered.”

There have always been persecuted outcasts among those God loves and cares about. God requires care and love among us as well. Lots of folks don’t like foreign folks, and want to build walls to keep them out. I often wonder how high that wall needs to be since so many foreign folks get here by air. Antipathy to the “other” has a long history. My grandmother used to say that it was the Irish who ruined Boston; which tells you what she thought of my dad. And she made me promise on the family Bible, that I’d never marry an Italian. I promised. I later broke that promise. But that’s all right. Ma has all that straightened out now that she’s in heaven. “Don’t you, Ma?” 

Foreign folks have often been given the cold shoulder here and around the world: and too the “eunuch”; those who raise gender and orientation questions. Talk about cold shoulder!

To our credit the Episcopal Church has handled these matters with something approaching Grace, albeit with the notable occasional brouhaha. 

The world doesn’t get what we’re doing sometime. Neither does so much of the church. As Paul so well puts it in today’s Epistle. “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

The core proclamation of today’s Gospel is: “We are a House of Prayer for ALL people”. This is because when Jesus stretched out his loving arms on the hard wood of the cross he did so in order that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace. 

God may surprise us from time to time in delightful kinds of ways just as happened last week after I returned to the lunch table with Cindy and David. “You’ll never guess who I met in the bathroom just now!” It doesn’t matter any more. Jew or Greek, slave or free, it doesn’t even matter any more if we are male or female. Because we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord and we shall always be “A house of prayer for ALL people”

In the Name of One God; The Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

Candlemas

Candlemas!

Candlemas:

A time to adorn the church with candles in the hope of Spring,

Burn down the old candles,

Prepare the new ones for Easter

O how I love Your Dwelling Place O God, 

Psalm 84, the Psalm appointed for Candlemas

1 How dear to me is your dwelling, O God of hosts! *
    My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of
                             God;
    my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

2 The sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; *
    by the side of your altars, O God of hosts,


3 Happy are they who dwell in your house! *
    they will always be praising you.

9 For one day in your courts is better than
                             a thousand in my own room, *
    and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God
    than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

10 God is both sun and shield; *
    and will give grace and glory;

11 No good thing will God withhold *
    from those who walk with integrity.

12 O God of hosts, *
    happy are they who put their trust in you!

A Prayer for Self Dedication

I give myself this day without reservation to God;
the Three of boundless Love
For my family and friends I pray
For all who strive for Peace and Justice throughout the world I pray
Grand us peace, grant us courage, grant us grace
That we may grow more and more into the likeness of God
And establish the reign of God throughout the earth.
Amen.

An Honest to God Christmas

A Christmas Greeting

Hush!

Hush you old world!

Hush!

Silent Night

Holy Night

The Baby sleeps

Perfect

In Peace.

The Holy Family

Shepherds

Cattle 

Donkeys

Dogs and cats

Curl and cuddle

Their breath and bodies

Giving warmth

Holding off the chill of night.

A silent Star shines in the sky

While Wise Kings follow their dreams

With precious Gifts

For the Holy Homeless Child

Herod, breathing threats and insults

Sleepless, paces the palace hallways

Afraid of the shadows he makes

The poor

The women

The sick

The outcast

The children and infants

The foreign born

Haunting him

Comfortless.

The Child loves him.

Loving all enemies 

And all of us

ALL of us, whoever we are.

The Angles sing the Holy Birth

With Silent Star overhead

"Peace on Earth

Goodwill to All"

The Silent Song sings on

Then and now

Filling our hearts

With 

Hope 

On this Most Holy Night

Hush!

You old world

Be Still

Be Calm

On the Listening Ear of Night.

Amen

Merry Christmas.

Fr Paul

Honest to God it is getting darker!

It is getting darker

Journal entry, Monday, December 11, 2017. 

Some sun this morning, 33 degrees F; the winds are SW at 14mph.

There has been an explosion in Times Square.

The Alabama election is tomorrow.

You came into the world because you loved it so much.

The world did not love you back, at least those in power didn't.

But You loved the world right to he last breath of Your life.

And forgave those who killed You and those with whom You died.

And now there is more crucifixion.

Innocents in the public squares by religious zealots.

In Your Name!!!

And more Innocents some even in their teen years

Exploited by more religious zealots

Also in Your Name!!!

Politicians and public figures and more

Seemingly no end to the abuse 

And still You came dying to Sin 

Rising to Life

Bringing Hope in a dark time.

Then

Now

Many look away in shame and denial

Many look away hateful and angry

But Your love does not go away

You are born again and again

Each year into the Darkness

Just a baby.

The King killed babies because of You

But Your love made it through the violence.

And here you are again

At exactly the right time

In the wake of an explosion

On the eve of an election.

You seem to know the right time

Exactly at the darkest hour

You love this gruesome, sinful world

Again, again, and again; seventy times seven and more

In the bleak mid-winter long, long ago

And, thank God, right now!

Amen.

Fr Paul

Honest to God: Prepare the Way!

Prepare the Way!

Journal entry:

Good morning. It is Sunday December 10, 2017.
Snow last night, I'd say about 5 inches
The temperature is hovering around the freezing mark,
The winds are calm and the sun is gloriously breaking through the clouds.

We don't have to trudge through the stuff on our way to church this morning.
Thanks be to God!
We needn't risk slipping or falling on the slippery spots.
We can wait a while.

Until perhaps this afternoon
When David sings in "Lessons and Carols"
A favorite Advent devotion.
Jeffrey will lead the choir and play the organ.
In a church where no one one gives
A second thought to
Sexual orientation, gender, race or ethnicity
Or even place of national origin
How pleasant and amiable is this.

We like good music
Good literature read well
Worship puts flesh and blood
On God in the way we love one another.
Or at least we try to!
We live at a time when
There are many who do not
Embrace such diversity

Sigh.

This too will pass.
We've been here before.
God knows we too can become ill tempered at times.
And on it goes.

But for now,
Hush.
Be quiet
And look at the manger.
Just folk there.
Simple folk.
Poor
Alone
Cold
Homeless
Taxed unfairly
Don't forget the animals too
Huddled up for warmth
The night we're told is
Faintly lit by a distant Star.

What wondrous love is born here
Not just in the Baby
But in us too.
One would Hope.

"Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem".
We can Hope against hope for
The angels song.
"Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all"

Amen.
Fr Paul

Honest to God: Time to Hibernate!

Hibernation!

Journal entry: Saturday December 9, 2017. Snow. 

God rested on the Seventh Day.

Perhaps a good idea.

I've been at it since 1972. 

Good God that's a long time!

Forty-five years!

Not a bad idea to take a breather.

Bishop Alan observed that I've been at it "full bore" for a long time

And in the context of some rather challenging situations.

Then it occurred to me

Perhaps like a New England Black Bear

Or a Montana Grizzly

I'll just curl up and hibernate in these winter months

For the first time in a very long time.

How pleasing is that idea to me.

No sermon preparation today.

No preparations for Christmas or Lent now.

Just the good sense to take a winter Sabbath

On this the Seventh Day and beyond.

I can still do the things I love to do.

I can write and ride the Subway

And take some photographs on a pleasant winter's day.

If You had the good sense to Rest

On the Seventh Day

So shall I in obedience to You,

In this my Sabbath Season.

In the meantime, before the snow hits,

I'll be off to tank up the car as Yankees do

A matter of sensible precaution.

The larder is stocked up

Home 

To put my feet up for a bit.

And then write to You

The way I love to do

To You and for You

The ongoing

Sacred Conversation.

And then...let it blow...

Let it snow...

Amen.

Fr Paul

Honest to God: A time for war?

Honest to God: A time for war?

Journal entry: Pearl Harbor Day 2017

It is a beautiful day for a walk along the Promenade in Lynn today. 

Mindfulness for me means our ongoing Conversation

I and Thou.

We speak together Honest to God

Openly, honestly, and candidly

In so doing we we open our hearts to one another.

There is Peace between us.

This is how You commanded us to be

With one another and with our enemies on Earth

You said; "Love one another"

Would that we could so walk together.

But we refuse

   Republican and Democrat

   Conservative and Liberal

   Evangelical and Progressive

   Extremist and Centrist

   Israeli and Palestinian

   The two Koreas

There are so many more.

We find ourselves as we often do in history

On the edge of warfare.

Name calling, stopping our ears; we will not listen.

You said;

"Come let us reason together". (Isaiah 1:18)

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings." (Matthew 23:37)

"Love one another".  (John 13:34)

And then You died trying.

The violence within won and died and then 

You rose again from this death.

The time is short;

Make us love what You Command.

Amen.

Fr Paul

Honest to God, that's better...

Honest to God, that's better...

Journal entry, December 5, 2017

Much improved today

No sooner do I pour out my soul to You

Then Your Grace rushes in.

A Lamentation over the "way" retirement hit me

It needed to be said;

It needed to be prayed

So I read the paper, have a leisurely breakfast

Say the Daily Office, remember friends and family in prayer,

Then write to You in my Journal.

Then, finally, out for a walk.

The first "real" walk since the fall in July.

I took my walking stick; a sensible precaution

The sun was shining 

The sea was sparkling

And I rejoiced in You and said;

"Maybe this retirement thing is not so bad after all".

So many kind words of encouragement from so many family and friends

Some of you even a bit worried

And you're right. 

Thank you.

Maybe come Spring and Summer I can do a bit of supply work.

But for now rest, relax and allow time to heal

Write and take some photographs.

This I love.

And walk with You:

We can talk things over the way we do

And maybe, just maybe

This retirement thing will work out after all.

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

Fr Paul

Honest to God, Early Winter

Honest to God

Journal entry , Early winter 2017

Honest to God I've been a bit out of sorts lately.

So is Cindy.

We're both fighting off colds.

There is a bit of a let down after the frenzy of packing and moving from Helena to Lynn.

The knee injury and the brain bleed are reminders of the inevitable.

And speaking of the inevitable, Doug died. His funeral was Saturday.

And then there is the facing of the fact that I'm done now. 

After 46 years of parish priesthood.

That's it.

I'm done.

My stamina is not what it once was. 

Truth be told I'm 72 now. 

But the rest is helping.

When I remember You, God knows that helps.

That would be YOU! God knows.

Honest to God, I forget You often

In the tossing and turning of it all

The ache and the pain of it

This is when I forget you. 

And then almost as if a lightbulb switched on 

There You are.

Present in the Silence.

Unseen in the Darkness

But like those wonderful days when I was a child, we talk.

I talk.

Honest to God to You

I pour out my heart to You about all the above and more

And soon

I sleep.

And that's the part I don't remember either

In the arms of Your Heart, I sleep

As soon as I remember, it seems, I forget once more

Through it all You are there

Whether I forget or remember

Honest to God.

Amen

Fr Paul

Honest to God

Honest To God

When was the last time an Episcopalian actually "invited" you to church? As Advent approaches this year, that's exactly what I'd like to do. Last Sunday was my first down day in a while. I just plain slept in, read the paper, drank coffee and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. After 46 years of priesthood I thought I deserved a break. Being an Honest to God Pagan from time to time has much to commend itself. 

But then Cindy and I started thinking about Advent. What shall we do? Obviously it makes sense for us to visit churches we've served since retirement. It has been quite a journey. And we're both curious. 

But that begs the question. Why would I invite you to church?

You could be a perfect stranger to me.

You may be reluctant given what passes for "christian" out there. 

I agree with you there. I feel no connection whatsoever with the evangelical conservative movement which feels contrary to much of what I value in the Gospel.

For me, Jesus searched out and loved the outcast. 

In those days it may have been the leper. In our day it feels like the LGBTQ community. 

Jesus searched out the poor, the meek. the brokenhearted and the persecuted.

These were among those Jesus described as blessed. ~Matthew 5

The Episcopal Church and other "mainstream" churches have struggled to be inclusive communities that search for justice for the poor. 

Jesus is compassion, reconciliation and above all, Jesus is the Love of God made flesh and blood.

This is Who I seek.

When I want to focus on the Love of God made flesh and blood I look to Jesus. There are four magnificent snapshots we have of him in The Sacred Writings: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. The reading of them takes center stage in our Liturgy. The Gospel Book is brought into the midst of our congregations as Jesus came into our midst in the town squares to long ago.

I invite you to come and meet this Jesus along with the rest of us.

May I suggest that if you wish to take me up on this invitation you do so "Honest to God". This is the only place to begin, in the center of your Heart of Hearts where God lives. 

I invite you to go to the very center of your Heart of Hearts this Advent and come to rediscover who God is for you. This is how I seek to approach the Sacred. And to tell you the truth after 46 years of life in the church, that is pretty much where we all begin; "Honest to God". 

This is not to say you will not find pettiness and hypocrisy in the church. God knows I've fought many a petty battle with what I considered "small minded" folk for many years. Truth be told I can also get a bit petty and small minded too. 

To tell you the truth, there is plenty of pettiness and hypocrisy to go around. But there is also a far higher truth to live into also. To find a place where we can come to terms with the lesser within us as well as with the noblest within us is exactly what the church is designed to be: Honest to God!

Yes. I invite you to church. Pick one. They're all pretty much the same. Wonderful people who will be a blessing to you and a bane as well, I assure you. This is true of us all. The church is a wonderful place to come to terms with the truth about us all "Honest to God".

In the silence before sleep, this is Who I discover "Honest to God". As I converse with the hallowed emptiness of a sleepless night, there You are, the same now as ever. What seems empty to me, Honest to God, is full of your Love for me. Eventually, this is how I fall asleep; In Your love.

This is what keeps me coming back to church, to learn and learn and learn again that You are there in our midst; "Honest to God".

And so I invite you to church, not so much to "go to church" as to "be the church".
Having folks who can be "Honest to God" with one another is such an inviting prospect!

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

Fr Paul