Once in a Blue Moon

The moon was magnificent on Friday July 31, 2015. I cannot help but stand in awe of such events as these. Here are some reflections on that glorious moment, 8:03pm at moonrise.

Once in a Blue Moon

It is a rarity but it does happen. Once every 30 months astronomers tell us. The reference is not so much to the color of the moon, although Friday night's moon was magnificent and changed in hue from red, to silver and to bluish/silver depending on how long you watched it. In fact a true "blue moon" appears blue only when there has been an event like a volcano somewhere on the planet. I got some fairly good shots of the full moon from my vantage point at the Boardwalk in the evening as the sun set in the west and as the moon rose in the east. There were all sorts of folks watching down by the marshlands from the parking lot to the footbridge to the beach. 

The reference to the Blue Moon is to the occurrence of a full moon twice in one month. The last full moon was on July 2, this one on July 31st. The next Blue Moon will not occur until January of 2018.

She rose brilliantly in the sky and the poet within could not help but remember the words of the Psalmist;

"The heavens declare the Glory of God*

and the firmament shows God's handiwork.

One day tells its tale to another*

  and one night imparts knowledge to another

Although they have no words or language*

and their voices are not heard,

Still their sound has gone out into all lands*

and their message to the ends of the world.

~Psalm 19:1-4

And these magnificent words;

"When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,*

the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

Who are we that you should be mindful of us?*

the children of humanity that you should seek us out?"

~Psalm 8:4,5

I know my astronomy and God knows I know and love Carl Sagan for what he did years ago to educate us in the magnificence of the cosmos with its billions and billions of stars and galaxies, its dark matter and its black holes and so many other wonderful imponderables.

I find that it is the truth of science that inspires me to appreciate the poetry and the mystery of all space and time. For to me, existence itself is a creature of God. To say that God "exists" doesn't quite hit the nail on the head because God, to me transcends existence. The mystery of God is in of the Being of God, as well as in the being of humanity. It is in our Being that we are connected in the deepest places of the human heart where God's heart meets ours.

Science is no threat to our knowledge and appreciation of God and God's creation. Science provides the basis of truth that enhances our appreciation of the magnificent complexity and detail of the universe. We grow to grasp something of what space and time are as their intertwined reality turn about on each other.

Einstein had a marvelous appreciation for the relationship between science and faith. It was he who once said of both; "Religion without Science is blind, but Science without Religion is lame." Science cannot even walk without an appreciation for the wonder and mystery of existence and life.

It is in this context that we gather as the church week by week to proclaim the wonder and the mystery of it all. We come to church, we faithful, not because coming to church is an end in itself. It is being the church that matters. Being the Body of Christ for the sake of the world, this is what matters. You know me well enough by now to know, that our faith is more, much more that a mere gathering of folks who repeat by rote a ritual that we've been observing for century after century, millennium after millennium. We are here, we gather to be the church, to be the Body of Christ. We're here to be changed and to be the agents of change so that we may confront human suffering and injustice with the healing power of Jesus.  Paul, for instance begs of us to become one in spirit and in the bond of love, with these words;

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."

In this period of transition, I believe God is calling each of you to consider how you might be part of building up the Body of Christ in this place. What do you bring to this faith community? What gifts can you share? How is God tugging at your heart? And to do what? 

Moreover God is calling us to be someone for each other. We are to be One, "bearing with one another in love". We are called to be Christ for the world and to organize our lives around the needs of the community in which we live.

Jesus noticed that the people were hungry in the Gospel. Wishing to respond to the immediate need, he instructed the disciples to respond to the hunger of the people in the immediate vicinity. 

And then he encouraged us to remember that we hunger for a great deal more than the food that perishes but for the food that nourishes us to eternal life.

That kind of food is passed on from one to another until all human needs are met and not just physical needs but all human need for spiritual, emotional and physical sustenance. As we organize our lives around these wants we satisfy the needs of every living creature. This is how God is with us. This is how God wants us to be with all creation. As the Psalmist says;

The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, * 

and you give them their food in due season.

You open wide your hand *

and satisfy the needs of every living creature.

  ~Psalm 145:16-17

Let me tell you this, as you live out your lives as a congregation in this manner, you will become a beacon to the whole community and many will be drawn to you. And yes, one more thing; as you search your hearts and souls for who might be your next priest, so too you will also search your hearts and souls to discern how God is calling you to be involved in building up the Body of Christ as St. John's Church. When your new priest comes, there will be a new burst of energy and excitement. What I pray for then as I pray for now, is that each of you will want to say from the bottom of your hearts, "You can count on me to do whatever needs to be done to strengthen the vitality and vigor of this congregation." This discernment is as important if not more so than the discernment of who your next priest will be.

God will also call you to be a prophetic voice, in the way God called Nathan to speak the truth to David, you will also have something to say to the world about how it treats the poor, the suffering, the vulnerable. You will be called to courage on behalf of those who have no voice. You and I are always called to be the voice of the voiceless.

Once in a Blue Moon, we have this opportunity; a time between priests, a time to search our souls as well as the souls of those we search to become the next rector of St. John's. It is the good old summertime. Take the time my friends to pray.

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

Our Physical Connection to Jesus

The Strong Name of the Trinity

That’s a good question Nicodemus; “What must we do to inherit eternal life?”

And the answer class? Yes, “You must be born from above”. That is to say, you must be Baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps we can unpack that statement a bit. Let me begin with Patrick’s Breastplate. Being Anglo Irish by birth and blood, I have a predisposition to all things Celtic. In fact, I am looking forward to the annual Gathering of the Anamchara Fellowship which begins tomorrow outside Detroit. It is a community of religious, clergy and laity within the Episcopal Church, dedicated to the worship of God and service to the world. Last year, I was a speaker at their annual gathering and liked it enough to become a Companion with them. I am now their “Anamchara”, a Celtic word that means something akin to “soul friend”. I will have a special relationship to the leadership in particular as well as to the membership in general. The Anamchara Fellowship is the fastest growing monastic community in the Episcopal Church. I believe this is so because it satisfies some deep spiritual longing among God’s people and yet we remain dispersed as we are in our homes and communities as married, single, working, retired, professed nuns and monks, clergy, laity and so forth.

But back now to this idea about being born from above. St Patrick explores the idea in his invocation of God. He does so in far more ways than in the unidimensional "above". When Patrick binds himself to the strong name of the Trinity, he uses the ancient Celtic poetic form of a "lorica" much as it were body armor against the wiles of the Evil One. Here are the words which you can find in our Hymnal #370;

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

For Christians being born from "above", as it were, means that we see the sacred within time and place, in buildings like this one, or in our homes, and yes in our very lives. We see the sacred in God's created order. We see it in Christ, we see it in fellowship with one another. God becomes situated within the deepest places, in the center of our souls. That's where we meet God. In prayer we may use the pronoun "Thou" when we speak to God, or we may use the more contemporary; "You". Either way to inherit eternal life Nicodemus it takes a time and a place to practice the presence of the holy. You must be born from above.

In yesterday's wonderful confirmation service in New Bedford, Bishop Alan Gates reminded us that when he places his hands on the heads of the confirmands, he passes on an unbroken physical and spiritual connection between Jesus and his Apostles directly to each of those receiving confirmation and reception.

Robert, Chase, Katy, and James; just imagine, YOU have each received the spiritual and physical touch of Jesus and the Apostles in your very bodies and souls! 

As with all Christian folk we seek to be born from above, and to bind ourselves unto the Strong Name of the Trinity. We are all required to do this by Jesus as we make our way toward heaven and eternal life. We see Baptism as the primary means by which we come to God through Christ and within the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Mind you any human being can love and forgive with or without Baptism. Any human being can muster courage to reconcile feuding family and friends. Eventually that courage must also be extended to our enemies and those who wish us harm. Hopefully everybody is so dedicated, but we know for a fact that not all understand Baptism as we do; as a total makeover of the soul. Some will use the Sacred Name as a reason to engage in warfare and in acts of terror. Violence is the total antithesis to the teachings of Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus. 

As we understand it specifically as Christians, Jesus spoke most urgently of heaven and eternal life but not so much in terms of a place we go when we die. He saw heaven as more urgently to be practiced here and now for the sake of the human race and for the future of the planet we live on. As today's Gospel puts it; "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." This is why we must be born from above; Baptized. This is the eternal life Jesus seeks.

This brings us to Trinity Sunday.

Ah yes, and right away there is the debate about the Oneness and the Threeness of God. How can God be One when God is also Three? The Three in One and the One in Three? I don’t get into these great theological questions to tell you the truth. They are too difficult for me. 

Like some of the other quasi scientific/theological debates;

Did God create the world in exactly six days? 

And was the day of Creation October 23rd, 4004BC as computed

  by the 17th century Irish scholar and Bishop James Usher?

Did God create Adam and Eve in that first week?

Did Jonah live in the belly of a whale for three days?

Did Moses part the Red Sea?

Did Jesus walk on the water?

Did he feed 5000?

Folks, I know the difference between what is essential to my faith as well as what is perhaps something more metaphorical. At least I’m bright enough to know that much. As for the rest, I just don't trouble myself with such difficult questions. I am too much a lover of Science and Knowledge to blind myself to truth. I am too much a man of faith to dismiss what is essential to life.

Science gives some marvelous imagery to help us see the dynamic qualities of God. After all creation and life are created with the imprint of God. Think, for instance, of the sub atomic structure of the universe with its protons, electrons and a host of other particles whirring about in relationship to one another. Or the magnificence of the Milky Way spinning in space like a gigantic pinwheel, and the DNA molecule with its amazing complex of genetic markers winding around itself together in a double helix; the building bloc for all life on the planet. How glorious!

What makes God so strong to me though is not so much the physics of reality’s component parts. No. Stronger to me by far is the Love of God, that binds us to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and then to one another and ultimately to all flesh and blood.

That’s what makes the Name of God so strong to me.

It is in the experience of God’s love.

The Savior’s decisive power over sin and death.

And the Holy Spirit from on High, God’s Holy Wisdom the “Hagia Sophia”, she who is our Advocate and Guide, the Gift Giver, and the One who equips us for ministry.

This is what brought the Church to Proclaim the Strong Name of the Trinity. It was not a Doctrine; it was an Experience and, by God it continues to be an Experience.

There is so much work to do and so much joy to share so that we might fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

There are friends and enemies to love and reconcile.

There is sin to forgive, my own as well as others’.

There are diseases to be cured, the sick and the dying to visit.

There are the poor and those in prison to tend to.

There is a dangerous world out there at war and in terror and seeking the Peace that passes all understanding. Anybody want to take that one on?

There are lives shipwrecked; tossed up on the shores of addiction, depression, and all sorts of human weakness seeking to be freed from sin and yearning for redemption. 

So much to do as we seek to be born from above in a baptized life, living on purpose for God! As Michael Marshall, one time Bishop of Woolwich, was fond of saying; “Our mission is not so much to make good folks better, it is to make bad folks holy”.

Folks there is much to do. Places to go, people to see, life to be lived. That's why I bind unto myself this day the strong name of the Trinity. And that my friend Nicodemus is what it is to be born from above.

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

What if God Loved EVERYBODY?

Imagine a God

Imagine if you will a God who wanted to save what is possible to save of the world in all its marvelous complexity.

To one people God might send Moses to bring them from slavery to freedom and then to give them a law to live by.

To the "Gentiles" (everybody else) God might want to make the love of God flesh and blood in Jesus in order to get the point across; namely, "Love, one another".

To another folk in yet another part of the world God The All Merciful might send Muhammed, may peace be upon him. Inspired by God, Muhammed might write the Koran and begin each chapter with the word "Mercy" hoping that idea might catch on.

Around the world what if God sent Confucius to bring a special wisdom?

Or the Buddha to bring a profound respect and love for all life and show the way to peace?

And of course on and on it goes, as if God wanted to save and enlighten everyone.

Imagine a God who loved science, knowledge and truth, even if it ended up denying what small human minds imagine God to be. Imagine a God who wanted us to discover all that there is to be discovered about the universe. 

Imagine a God looking for a way to bring peace with justice to the whole world and to all people.

Only if we could open our minds and hearts to such a God can we open our hearts and minds to one another.

It is a matter of some urgency that we open our hearts and minds in such a way, since God is Love.

Fr Paul