Holy Cross Day

The Hard Wood of the Cross

There is an old prayer that puts it well

"Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen." ~Book of Common Prayer, page 101

Not everyone can love gay folks. This is especially true in churches. Most churches want to "fix" them. Some go so far as to say they are an "abomination". Others speak of them as if they were "disordered". But in the culture wars we have been fighting for many years now, we have been struggling to love all without regard to sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity, class, or language. For the truth of the matter is, neither can everyone can love black folks, foreigners, poor folks, or Spanish speaking people.

For Episcopalians and for the Emerging Inclusive Church, we like, Jesus have been struggling to stretch out our arms of love on the hard wood of the cross so that everyone may come within the reach of God's saving embrace. We have now come to the point where we have opened our ministry and membership to LGBT folks as well as straight folks, women as well as men, foreigners as well as White Anglo Saxon Protestants, Spanish speaking as well as English speaking folks. It has not been easy. In fact, it has caused enormous controversy and schism. 

But it is as plain as the nose on your face. Jesus stretched out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross so that everyone may come within the saving reach of his saving embrace. EVERYONE!!! As we seek to be obedient to Jesus we can do nothing less.

Today and everyday is a day to embrace the Holy Cross as Jesus did.

Happy Holy Cross day.

Fr Paul

All Aboard the Emerging Church!

All Aboard: Everyone is Welcome!

For my birthday, I wanted to take the Salem Ferry to Boston and have lunch at Durgin Park. My wife and I did that. It was a fun day. As we gathered at the Dock we anxiously awaited the invitation of the boat staff; "All Aboard"

When I was a child, I loved vacations with the family. I particularly loved seeing those "Episcopal Church Welcomes You" signs wherever we went. Every time I saw one, it was as though God spoke a kind word in my heart. I felt as though God actually welcomed me. I took this whole religion thing very personally. It was for me the ecclesiastical equivalent of the welcome words dockside at a ferry boat; "All Aboard!"

But then I discovered along that way that it was going to be a real battle for the church to mean what it said, and to say what it meant. I've been a priest for over 40 years now and what a struggle it has been.

There was the business of race for instance.

When I went to seminary, we had to do battle for civil rights in this country. I lived and worked in Harlem to try and understand what was wrong with the soul of this country. I discovered that the problem was not in Harlem. It was in White America. I have spent the rest of my life trying to deal with that reality within me and within my church. We are still struggling with that. One of my classmates, previous to me by two years, paid the price of the struggle with his life. Jonathan Daniels took a bullet for a young black girl in Hayneville, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. Now it appears that we have to fight the whole battle all over again as America's signature stain on her shoul rears back it ugliness in so many ways.

There was the business of our common worship life.

We went on to make the Liturgy more accessible to the contemporary world, and this was especially difficult in a church hide bound by tradition. Many, many folks treasured the language of our Elizabethan liturgy and rightly so. It is a treasure. But most of our contemporary world speaks a very different English. And the proof of the pudding is that most of our churches celebrate the Eucharist in the contemporary idiom, while still reserving the traditional mass for the early service in most places. It is an accommodation that makes good sense. Still we lost many to schism during this difficult period.

Then there was the business of gender.

It became clear, in fact it became obvious to most of us that there really should be no distinction between us based on gender. In fact Paul made it clear that when we are in Christ we are a new creation and that "there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free" ~Galatians 3:28. This notion, as obvious and clear as it now seems, was a matter of great controversy to the church and again many left for more traditional congregations and denominations. When we elected our first woman bishop, Barbara Harris, it was just the icing on the cake for many, many more, and even to this day, many in the Anglican Communion still refuse a place at the altar for women.

And now more recently there is the matter of sexual orientation.

Then on the Feast Day of Pentecost in 2003, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected Gene Robinson as bishop, the first openly gay man to serve in that position anywhere in the Lutheran, Episcopal and Roman Catholic circle of faith. Mind you, there have been many gay folks serving as bishops and priests in all three but not so openly. All hell broke loose as many of you will know. The Anglican Communion was ripped apart in controversy. People threatened to kill Bishop Robinson. In fact he had to wear a bullet proof vest at his consecration. Christians can be hot headed about these things as others can be. It is no wonder to me why so many turn away from "organized religion". But we held to our position that the church is called to be inclusive.

We believe that when Jesus was among us, he went out of his way to include folks who had been specifically excluded from the Temple Precincts.

Excluded were Prostitutes, Tax Collectors, The Blind, The Maimed, Poor Beggars, and just plain fisherfolk. Eunuchs were also specifically excluded but Jesus specifically included them. You will no doubt remember that it was exactly to this crowd that Jesus reached out his loving arms. This got Jesus into lots of trouble. 

What sealed his fate then was his "Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem". He entered the Temple Precincts, saw the moneychangers and dealers in pigeons. In a rare demonstration of rage, he overturned their tables and said "My house shall be called a House of Prayer for ALL people, but you have made it a den of robbers."

In a few short days he hung upon a cross reaching out his arms of Love upon the cross so that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace. 

So why is this concept so difficult for so many Christians to understand? Why do Christians erect barriers along definitions of race, ethnicity, gender, class and orientation? Obviously there is much fear still of those who differ from "us" whoever we happen to be.

But it is my birthday. I have worked a lifetime on all of the above issues. I was born into this church; the Episcopal Church, and I feel blessed on my birthday to have been born into it.

We are becoming a "House of Prayer for ALL People". I am grateful too that there is an emerging church that no longer adheres to strict denominational lines but along the lines of Christ's all encompassing love of everyone.

It makes for a very Happy Birthday indeed.

Blessings to you all,

Fr. Paul

Godfinds

Found by God

Facebook friends and others frequently ask me questions about God. Yesterday Dave from the Philippines told me that he's been looking for God all his life. And now that he needs God the most, God seems the furthest away. Dave's beloved uncle died and so in his desolation, Dave reached out half way across the globe in search of the Love that surpasses understanding.

I told Dave the following; 

God is much closer to you than you can possibly imagine. God is closer to you than the very next breath you take. Be still before God and allow your spirit to be absolutely still. There will be a very long silence. If you listen closely to your heart and notice your breathing , you will discover that the silence will become a Presence. That Presence will become your Companion for the rest of your life if you wish it to be so. Your Companion is God. Practice God's Presence in the Silence as often as you can and eventually you will notice that Jesus is within you as God's Love is made flesh and blood within your own heart. I suspect you may be looking too hard. God is there in every feeling you have. Remember "Feelings" are God's Angels sent to invite you into growth toward God. Share your questions with me or a Special Companion, a Spiritual Guide or Director...Someone you can trust with your very heart. We call these people our "heart-others", because we can tell them of our hearts and souls and trust ourselves with them

God is to be discovered not in clouds or in the heavens above. God is to be discovered within our own hearts. The deeper we journey within toward the truth of who we are, the deeper will will come to the Truth of who God is.

Remember too that your heart may ache especially in the aftermath of tragedy. There may be a desolation for you. You may feel utterly alone of even bereft. God seems distant as if there were no God. Whatever you feel, God is there within the midst of every feeling that is yours in your loneliness because you are not alone. God is there with you. God is there within you. 

It is as you delve into the Silence and listen that the Presence becomes God for you. 

There are several passages of Scripture that may be helpful. 

"Be still, and know that I am God!" ~Psalm 46:10

The story of Moses at the Burning Bush is the story of a deeply troubled man who had killed an Egyptian soldier. His life wan't worth two cents. It was a matter of time before he would be cut down and return to his ancestors. His people were slaves driven by hard taskmasters.

Then, in his desperate loneliness he came to an amazing sight. It was the famous incident of the Burning Bush. In the pursuing encounter, God reveals that God is the very nature of Being itself, and thus God's Name becomes; "I AM"

Moses at the Burning Bush

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

The Divine Name Revealed

 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’ God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “TheLord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:
This is my name for ever,
and this my title for all generations. 

~Exodus 3

Here again is an amazing story of an Epiphany before God; one is which the "sheer silence" becomes the primary experience of God.

Elijah Meets God at Horeb

 He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for theLord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but theLord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but theLord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

~1 Kings 19

And then there is this proclamation of Jesus, one in which a place apart becomes instrumental to prayer. Jesus liked to go to quiet and deserted places to pray;

Concerning Prayer

 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

~Matthew 5

Remember if you are looking for God, the best way to do so is to be found by God! 

At St. Gabriel's, Douglassville, PA, where I currently serve as the interim Priest-in-Charge every business meeting of the congregation begins with a sharing of "Godfinds". These are moments in which the word "God" is more than a three letter word. It is a reality and an experience of Grace that fills our lives. For those attuned to this Reality, the sharing of it becomes essential to life and vitality.

As we move forward to the rediscovery of the "Emerging Church" one of the central functions of such a church will be "finding God", or more exactly "being found by God".

Finally, rest in this assurance; God's love and Blessing are primarily with the poor, the meek, those who mourn and those who are persecuted for the sake of God's Justice.

The Beatitudes

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

~Matthew 5

A blessing on you all,

"Fr. Paul"

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The Emerging Church

The Emerging Church

One of the more significant initiatives that came out of General Convention, the triennial gathering of the Bishops and Deputies of the Episcopal Church, is of the re-imagining of the structures of the church. One of the options the church is entertaining, for instance, is the relocation of our National Headquarters from New York City (see below) to a more central location in the Mid-West, perhaps St. Luis. There is in fact some conversation with the American Evangelical Lutheran Church, not to be confused with the Missouri or Wisconsin Synods, about whether we might consider sharing a National Office, staff and so on. This makes some sense on the surface of things because we; the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches have already established full communion with one another. I remember like it was yesterday when Cindy and I attended the Service at the National Cathedral where we celebrated this Eucharistic Union.

The Church will probably need to do some significant re-imaging at all levels of its existence. At National, Diocesan, and at Parish Levels, we are in need of a profound re-imagining of our life together.

I began reading he biography of Steve Jobs a few days ago. Talk about re imagining! Here was a man that understood that it would take the combination of Humanitarian concern and technology to provide every human being on the planet with the ability to learn, communicate, and relate to one another from a desk top computer. We’re still learning what this “Digital Age” will do for us or may do to us. But now because of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard and other specialists in innovation, we live in a very different world than we lived in just twenty years ago. We live in a world of computers, cell phones and iPads. 

When I retired the second time, I went to the Apple Store to get my iPad, one of the kids there said; “You’ve got the trifecta now!” 

“Trifecta?” said I.

“Yes, you have a MacBook Pro, and iPhone and and iPad. We call that the trifecta”. When my dad took me to the race track as a boy, the word had a very different meaning.

I began to wonder what it would be to re imagine the church. I wondered if there were a way to put humanitarian ideal, liturgical joy, and technological innovation together as we breathe badly needed life back into The Church, which is the biblical name for the Body of Christ.

When Jesus said that he is the “Living bread that came down from heaven” as he did in today’s Gospel, I know exactly what he meant. I know how he lived his life. He  lived by feeding the multitudes with the Bread of Heaven. He fed his disciples with that same Sacred Bread at the Last Supper and his disciples recognized Jesus in the Breaking of Bread and in the Drinking of Wine. 

But the recognition of Jesus in Bread and Wine is not an end in itself. Rather he recruited to him those who hungered for something deeply in the heart and soul of life. They tended to be poor and struggling working people mending their nets. They were the sin sick prostitutes and tax collectors. They were physically and mentally sick; lame, blind, deaf, paralyzed, and demon possessed, a biblical expression for then current understandings of mental illness. 

Jesus organized his life around the needs of these people. He then said something extraordinary; “Whoever eats this of this bread will live forever”.

What is this bread? Remember how Jesus put it to Peter? 

“Peter do you love me?” 

Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

“Then feed my sheep.”

Jesus had to repeat the question three times and Peter was hurt when Jesus asked him that third time. But Jesus had to drive home the point.

You may remember that near the end of his ministry Jesus said that he would divide the nations as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (You may read this amazing passage of scripture here.) The sheep he put at his right hand and the King will say; “Come you that are Blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you for from the beginning of time. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me”.

“Lord when did we do these things for you?”

And the King will answer; “Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me”

Is the lesson not clear, then? It is as we organize our life around the needs of human beings that we discover the pathway to heaven. Our Bread becomes the doing of the will of God. This way of being and doing and living is indeed the way of living forever. And it is clear that as we live our lives that way, we build a pathway into the love of God, because we are building a pathway into the love of one another. The two are congruent with one another.

Celtic Christianity has become very popular among people because of its keen awareness of the practice of the Presence of God. It is the spirituality of the Celts that has caught the imagination of millions.

That spirituality, however, is built on a very practical basis. St. Aidan, who evangelized almost all of the north of Britain more than a thousand years ago, did so as he organized his monasteries around real human need. Lindisfarne or Holy Island is the most notable. (see below)

We will feed you if you are hungry. We will give you something good to drink. Those Irish monks were especially good with that. We will give you something to wear if you are ill equipped to bear the cold of winter’s winds. We will welcome you here as if it were your home. We will tend you when you are sick. We will visit you in prison. We will educate your children and we will share knowledge and the state of learning as it is in the world today. We will teach you about the state of the art in farming techniques. We will take care of you when you are sick. We will tend to your dying loved ones.

Is it any wonder they built such amazing centers of worship and service, because what they understood was that the raison d'être of the church was to be the Body of Christ for the sake of the world. That meant pure and simple that they were to tend to the needs of human beings. This is how they organized their life.

You see, I do not think it matters so much where we put our headquarters or who we share our national staff with. This is all well and good as far as it goes.

But not until be really begin to re imagine the church as organized not around denominational structure or doctrine but around the real needs of human beings. 

"Going" to church is not an end in itself. "Being" the church for the sake of the world is what will spell the difference if we are to have a future. It will be as we organize our lives around real human need; jobs, health care, education, the care and protection of the poor, the young and the elderly...it is as we live out our lives like Jesus...this will spell out our viability as we live into the future. Yes, this is my prayer...that we "become" the Body of Christ aka The Church.

There is an emerging church, don't you think, one that is not tied to denominational boundary or even to doctrine or dogma. It is tied to being organized not around its structures but around human need. Once we learn this lesson, all our sad divisions can go to the back burner where they belong. Then we can become one in Christ as we extend ourselves to the needs of the Beloved of Christ...those he came to die for...for you and for me. 

And you, my friends, deserve a pat on the back. (St Gabriel's Church, Douglassville, PA) You're doing it! You saw a need for housing for the elderly, something that dignified the human being, and you built the Keystone Villa. You had the vision, the land and the joy to build it. You saw the need to care for children and you built the Learning Center and developed the Atria. You saw the need for young people growing up in a confusing world, and you built a marvelous youth program. You saw hungry people, you made meals for them at the Community Center in Birdsboro, you got practical, downright practical, and you made soup for the pantry at St. Paul's....60-100 quarts of it every month year round. You folks get it. You've built a good foundation from which we can continue to build the body of Christ from this point on.

As we do this, as we become the Body of Christ for the sake of the world, then the task that lies before us now is how do we commend the faith of Jesus to the world around us? We're going to figure that out too, mark my words.

This is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as St Paul puts it: (also in today's lesson) "to sing psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs". It is as our lesson from Proverbs puts it: to walk in “the way to walk in wisdom and insight”. May we always walk in the way of Wisdom. It is the way to eternal life~

Peace be upon you all, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Paul