Easter Joy! Easter Surprise! Easter Power!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. Let me greet you with the Joy, the Surprise and the Power of Easter Day.

First let me greet you with the Joy of Easter.

There really is no greater Joy than Easter. The songs of Easter, the festive gathering of God’s people especially on this one day of the Christian Year, the day that marks the Queen of Festivals. We gather as God’s family today to feast at the altar of God, so too I wish you every joy as you gather with your families and friends around your dining room tables later today. 

The Joy of Easter is a recognition that everyone is welcome within God's saving embrace without exception. “Now I understand that God shows no partiality” as St. Peter puts it in today’s first lesson from the Acts of the Apostles. “For in any nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him”. Anyone means anyone. Anyone means you. That’s the joy of Easter. And the fact that it is you means no one can say that it is not you. The events of these last days in Holy Week are a proclamation of Godly generosity. There can be no exceptions to God’s generosity, God’s love, and God’s compassion. This is the Joy of Easter. 

It took Peter time to come around to this knowledge just like it takes time for the whole church of God to come to the knowledge of God’s full and inclusive love. This to me is the Joy of Easter. All means all. Thankfully we belong to a church that now recognizes that there are no distinctions to its membership or ministry based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, or orientation. It took us a while to come to that understanding, but here we are. Like Peter, we too, now know that "God shows no partiality".

So let me also greet you with the Surprise of Easter.

When the women went to the tomb early that first Easter day, they were prepared to go through the customary preparations of the body for its final burial, and they brought the spices and the balm that were used for the purpose, steeling themselves for what, of course, is an exquisitely unpleasant task. What they were not prepared for was the Resurrection of that Body. When it was not there they supposed that perhaps he had been removed. It would have been, of course, the final indignity. Mary, stood there weeping, weeping from the very crest of grief. She supposed that he was the gardner, the one who spoke to her, and so she asked if he had taken the body, and where had he taken it.

Finally he said to her; “Mary!” 

Here is the surprise! She did not recognize him at first. It would come as no surprise to me if any of us really recognize Jesus ever at first, but especially on our Easter Day. We can certainly recognize him within the life of his teaching, his healing, his miracles, and even on the day of his death, that we can all recognize. We are all too familiar with all of that.

But on the Day of his Resurrection? And the Day of our Resurrection? Or now on this Day. The Day of the Resurrection of those we love who have all been gathered to our ancestors. That’s the surprise we’re all in for.

My step-father was a wonderful man. But he was a kind of a hard bitten German fellow. In fact his family came from a hard life of farming both here in Pennsylvania and then later in western Ohio. These people were a very practical people, and they learned their lessons from the school of hard knocks. My step father, “HK” as I called him; his name was Homer Kershner, went on to become an engineer. So for all he knew, only those things existed which you could see and measure and mould with your hands and with man made machinery. He allowed as to how there may very well be a God. It was nice of him to allow God existence, I often quipped. But the whole thing about heaven. That he was quite convinced. There is no evidence of such a thing. When you’re dead, you’re dead. I think he actually took some comfort in that declaration. After all, my mom was a feisty sort of woman and more than once I saw her sharp personality pierce into the hearts of those she loved as well as those who loved her, my own heart included. Oh but how he loved her! And so I often said to him; “Listen here, HK for loving my mother, you’re going to heaven whether you want to or not!”

We all laughed. But I meant it then. I mean it now. Hey, HK, “Surprise! You're in heaven!”

What a wonderful surprise we're all in for.

And finally let me greet you with the Power of Easter.

Several days ago I took some pictures of the full “worm” moon. It is called that by the Algonquin native Americans to characterize the new life that begins to emerge near the end of March. Forasmuch as the tender tendrils of earth’s new life push through the softened ground as prepared by the humble earthworm who in turn invites the robin’s return, and too as even the tiniest green shoots of grass break through concrete cracks in our sidewalks as Spring’s new life burst into the sunlight, so too our Jesus conquers the grave on this Easter Day, on all Easter Days, and most importantly on your Easter Day and mine.

God knows I understand how real death is. I’ve known it in my family and among my friends, I’ve certainly sat at the bedsides of many others I’ve served through the years, over 1000 at last count; I've shared the sorrows of many a family, and in my own flesh and bones I know the facts of my own vulnerability. But on Easter Day I proclaim the Power of Easter over Sin and Death.

Jesus Christ is Risen today! Alleluia!  What gives me the knowledge of this Power is not my mind, or the intellect or even in any theological reflection or any proofs for the existence of God, or Heaven or Eternal Life. What gives me the knowledge of the Power of God is my heart where I know the love of my family and friends, and God’s family and friends. For it is because I love you that I can believe. In fact, it is because of my love for you that I know that my Redeemer Lives. 

Thus as you prepare to walk with your next priest, prepare to walk with him or her with warmth, affection and love.  For as long as you can walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, then too you can walk with your new priest and one another.  This too is the power of Easter.

So then I wish you a very happy Easter. I wish you all of its Joy, I pray for its Surprise. And this I know, we will all come to know its Power.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Poor Shall be Filled; The Rich Sent Away!

Palm Sunday 2013

“He Shall Fill the Hungry with Good Things”

By Fr Paul Bresnahan

This is Mary’s song. It is one of the great song’s of faith sung at the time when the Archangel Gabriel came to the young maiden with the news that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her, and she shall then bring forth a son who will be called the Prince of Peace.

My soul doth magnify the Lord, *
    and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded *
    the lowliness of his handmaiden.
He hath showed strength with his arm; *
    he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, *
    and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, *
    and the rich he hath sent empty away.
This is the promise he made to our forefathers,
    Abraham and his seed for ever.

Thus Jesus was born to bring Good News to the Poor and he said so in the synagogue in his hometown. They nearly pitched him headlong over the precipice of a nearby cliff for saying so, but that’s what he said. Then at the end of his ministry he made this pronouncement: namely, that all the nations of the earth would be judged in accordance with how well they would treat the poorest of the poor, for as Jesus said; “Insofar as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me.” ~Matthew 25: 31ff.

It is in this spirit that we gather this Palm Sunday yet again singing our songs of faith. “We are marching in the Light of Christ”, “All Glory, Laud and Honor” and of course, “The Palms” de rigueur. Then at the end of the service we sing “Ride on ride on in Majesty, in Lowly Pomp Ride on to Die.”

The day began with such hope and promise. The children and all those happy throngs who spread their garments and palm branches along his way. They were his beloved; the poor and the lame, the blind, and the leper, the sin sick souls for whom there was no room in the Temple. These were the ones who sang their Humble Hosannas to their Lowly King.

Then he entered the Temple, and just when we thought this would be the day of his exaltation, he upset the tables of the moneychangers, he made a whip and drove them out of the Temple, saying “My House shall be a House of Prayer for All People, but you have made it a den of robbers!” Never had we seen our Lord so angry, even violent. And with that, of course he sealed his fate. For now those in power, especially among the Sanhedrin and the Roman occupation forces, had no choice but to have him done away with. Not only was he a threat to custom and tradition, he could have mobilized these masses of poor and the subsequent uprising could upset more than a few tables in the Temple Precincts, they could have upset the entire theological and political world they knew.

Then, as we know from the dramatic reading of today’s Passion Narrative, he was arrested, tried, convicted and crucified in the most shameful way the Roman authorities had available to them; on a cross, with two more bandits and political insurrectionists.

Which brings us back now to Mary’s Song.

With what shall he fill the hungry now?

How shall the humble and meek be exalted?

In what way shall the proud be scattered in the imagination of their hearts?

How shall the rich be sent empty away?

When we look at history and even in current events, things are more like a line from an old song: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Funny the title of that song is “Ain’t we got fun”, as if to acknowledge money isn’t everything, and as if to acknowledge the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

What then does Jesus promise on the cross? 

At first, no there’s no doubt about it; he promises nothing more than the suffering and death that all human nature must feed on. 

Is the cross our food?

So it seems and so terrified are the disciples that they flee away and Peter himself denies him three times before the cock crows twice.

Only the women are left, to console one another in their inconsolable grief.

Is this our fate?

Is it ever to be so?

Or will there ever be a time when Justice reigns in human society?

As we await the answer to that question, Mary still sings her song as if by solemn warning;

My soul doth magnify the Lord, *
    and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded *
    the lowliness of his handmaiden.
He hath showed strength with his arm; *
    he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, *
    and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, *
    and the rich he hath sent empty away.
This is the promise he made to our forefathers,
    Abraham and his seed for ever.

And with what shall we be fed?

Now we know.

Because for us, it is as Paul said

“He humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death--

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord”

Thus the dynamic of humility and exaltation are pointed together directly at the center of the heart of Jesus. In that Cross of Christ then we too are humbled as Jesus and Mary have been humbled before us in order that we too shall be greatly exalted.

As for the proud the rich and the powerful, particularly as they turn their backs on the poor. I’m not so sure they are so much to be envied as I sense it from the Song of Mary or the Preaching of Jesus. For in the Divine economy these tables are indeed upset, when the measures of forgiveness and eternal life are factored into God’s Justice.

As God stands as our Judge, we sing our songs of faith as millions have done before us, and Mary did the moment Gabriel brought her the Good News of the pending birth of her son.

So then no matter how poor I may be, no matter how empty I may feel, no matter with what suffering I must endure; this I know, as I embrace the Cross of Christ, I too shall be humbled for a season as Jesus was, but then I shall also be greatly exalted as Jesus himself is exalted.

So now the Song of Mary and the songs of our faith lift our spirits as they always do and we live out our faith in the knowledge and love of God in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose embrace all of us live and move and have our being.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit.

Fr. Paul

God is about to do something new! What about us?

God is About to Do a New Thing

What About Us?

It has been a year now since I came to share with you this journey toward heaven. And what a year it has been! I dare say, we’ve grown accustomed to one another’s faces as the words of the tune from My Fair Lady puts it.

It was St. Patrick’s Day then. It is St. Patrick’s Day now. And that Irishman from Boston came by for a visit, and we’ve marched together along the pathways of Berk’s County in order to Glorify Christ and for the Salvation of our Souls.

We’ve driven out some of the snakes that posed a threat to our congregation’s well being, and we’ve sought to walk in the Light of Christ together.

So now we must prepare ourselves for God to do “a new thing” in our midst as the First Lesson puts it. “Forget the former things”. Ha, that’s not so easily done! Whether the things of Cal Adams, Johanna Graham or Paul Bresnahan, all of that will soon enough be a thing of the past. And we will need to forget them, honest to God, forget them; in order for God to really do a new thing with you and your new priest coming together to continue your journey toward heaven.

Oh yes, I know and understand how much you and I would like to continue on doing what we’ve been doing, but I suspect God has other ideas. After all, I need to get back to my city by the sea some day to watch the tides come and go with my trusty Lab-mix Alcibiades. Yes that’s his name. My son has read Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian Wars...and the dog ended up with one of the more obscure names from that chronicle. I call him “Al” for short, unless he’s in trouble.

All that aside, retirement beckons. I’ll grant you that a spontaneous outbreak of devotion led by none other than Chuck Crummy called out for the my election to the Episcopacy in Rome; and more than once I heard the acclamation; “Paul for Pope!” as recently as last week’s pancake breakfast. 

I would have gladly served. How I would have relished the opportunity to get my hands on Roman Catholicism and leave my mark there, for the sake of those yet considered outcasts in the company of Jesus by that lot. Alas the Princes of the Church were led in other directions and a good man; a man of humility from Argentina was elected; a Jesuit no less, and he has called himself “Francis” to set the tone for his own papacy. We can hope for the hope of the poor now. And that is no mean thing. If this pope looks out for the poor of the planet, his papacy could be of historic significance.

It will take some time for us to hope for much else. Women will have to wait, for instance. Isn’t it interesting that the very next Sunday after the election of Francis, we come to a Gospel that places Mary at the feet of Jesus? This is a position reserved for the Disciples of a Teacher. Those who sit at the feet of the Teacher have a special place in the heart of The Teacher. Here she anoints his feet with the rarest of perfumes. Pure nard is refined from a rare and expensive root of a spikenard pant found only at 3000-5000 meters of altitude in the Himalayas of Nepal. 

Imagine the cost of that stuff at the time Mary used it to anoint Jesus’ feet. No wonder Judas challenged Mary’s right to do what she was doing. Perfumes of nard, having the scent of lavender in many cases, were used only for highly important rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem and for similar rituals to honor the gods in Rome.  Here Mary uses a whole pound this perfume to recognize Jesus as being none other than the Christ of God not with words, but with every extravagant wiping of her hair on the feet of Jesus. The disciples were horrified!

Conversely Jesus recognizes her as his disciple. “Leave her alone!” Jesus insists. “You will always have the poor with you”. Do we not still have the poor with us? Can we not do something about poverty still? Can we not do more than cut budgets to make their lives more miserable? Why can’t we at least be sure that every citizen of this nation has a decent job, so they can provide for their families? Even the Bishops of Rome have spoken up about that as have our own Bishops. The voices of these bishops have been largely ignored.

The Gospel goes to the heart of the matter when it notes that Judas really didn’t care about the poor. The idea of betrayal was already sneaking into his heart of hearts. But for Jesus this woman’s love meant a great deal. She along with the other women would be there for his suffering, his death, and the preparation his body for burial. And where were the disciples then? Long since terrified, running away from the prospect that they too could end up like Jesus if they hung around waiting to see what happened. Jesus stood by Mary because he knew that Mary would stand by Jesus. 

Much like the Episcopal church has stood up for women and their place at the altar of God. Now even our Presiding Bishop is not only a woman but a scientist and a pilot. A real renaissance woman! We’ve come a long way, baby from the day that Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with her hair.

Even if the current Bishop of Rome does not recognize her or other women as disciples worthy of ordination, Jesus exalts her to a place of honor in his heart and in the heart of God by allowing her to say what Peter had already said; “You are the Christ of God!” Only she says it with those anointing.

“God is about to do a new thing”; a great many new things. Watch what God does here at St. Gabriel’s. But more to the point what will we be doing to bring God’s new things to pass? At every level of our lives, what will we be doing? Just yesterday, I showed the Bishop what we’ve been doing here with our Membership Drive. My excitement was palpable and he could see it. I asked him; “Is there anything else I can do for the church while there is life still left in me?” 

Can I do anything for the poor? How I wish I could snap my fingers and put all my fellow country men and women to work. When I sat in the luxury and comfort of a commuter rail train last week on the way to the Flower Show I saw for myself row after row of blighted housing in Philadelphia. I thought of the young people there dying on crime and drugs. I thought of the young people in rural West Virginia dying on crime and drugs. They are dying of boredom with no work to do. 

Can we not do something for the poor? Is the best we can come up with is budget cuts that hurt the young and the elderly? Can we not do something about gun violence? For the life of me, I cannot understand why there isn’t an outcry of outrage. 

Alas, the seaside beckons. The tides come and go. And the dog likes the treats I spoil him with. It is St. Patrick’s Day. It is a day for corned beef and cabbage and lots of boiled vegetables. It is a day for music and dancing. A slice of Irish soda bread and a wee bit of the Guinness to wash it all down will leave you smiling from ear to ear and with a twinkle in the eye.

Watch out! God is about to do something new! So as my namesake puts it in today’s second lesson, so too I say it; “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Have a Gloomy Lent!

Have a Gloomy Lent!

The once Bishop of Western New York, whose see city is in Buffalo, was an impish fellow by the name of David Bowman. He, like many Episcopalians I know and love has a bit of a wry sense of humor, and refuses to take himself too seriously. On Ash Wednesday of every year he is fond of calling around to his best friends to greet them with that playful voice of his. When you pick up the phone he says; “This is the Bishop and I’m calling to wish you a gloomy Lent”.

Which brings us to Ash Wednesday; that time in the church year when we take the ashes from last year’s palms, burned now to a cinder, and impose those ashes on our foreheads with the ancient words; “Remember that dust you are and to dust you shall return.” Yes, this is indeed a mark of our mortality. 

We Celts I’m told were fond of keeping a skull on our desks in the cells of our monasteries many centuries ago as a reminder of whose we are; of where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. A senior warden from St Mark’s Church in St Albans WV got a chuckle out of that one too when I mentioned it. He also had an impish smile. Sipping his tea at coffee hour he’d say to me; “Alas poor Yorick!”

There is a monastery of the Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts just steps from Harvard University. The current Bishop of Massachusetts is a monk from The Society of Saint John the Evangelist. It is situated pleasantly on the banks of the Charles River. It is a quiet place of prayer in the midst of a very busy city. And in the very capital of the halls of power and influence there sits this holy place. Many flee to it for peace, renewal and prayer. More than twenty years ago the monks began a weekly Eucharist on Tuesday evenings at the Monastery chapel for the Harvard Community. Interestingly enough, the chapel is packed week after week after week with young scholars who hunger and thirst for good preaching and excellent liturgy.

There is a dinner that follows. There is mirth and merriment, and good intelligent and lively conversation among the students and the monks. It is possible to take time there to be in retreat and nourish your spirit.

So on this Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, I read these words from Brother Malmquist, a member of the community I’ve known for many years, known and respected for many, many years. 

He writes; 

“We are loaned back into life for a little while with Jesus’ promise that he’s going to use us, he’s going to use you. You represent Christ to this world – your sheer presence, your words, your touch, your actions, beyond which you could ask or imagine, and in ways that Christ will set up.”

Yes, imagine, we are loaned back into life for a space of time, perhaps seventy or eighty years; some more, some less. But we are loaned back into life. What a stunning way to put it.

For those of us who respond to the call of Jesus, we do have the promise that he will use us. We have this promise, he will use you. Your words, your touch, your actions, beyond which you could even begin to ask for or imagine and in ways that Jesus has already prepared for and me you to walk in.

Lent is a good time to give something up or to take something up; in either case as a way of disciplining ourselves in ever new and creative  ways to the devotion we seek to Jesus, to the church, and of course to one another.

But what makes Lent even more especially powerful for me is the notion that I can hardly restrain myself. So much do I love God and Jesus, so much do I love you that I can hardly restrain myself. 

Whether it is visiting the sick in the hospital, the elderly in the Keystone Villa, telling stories to the children, feeding the poor at the Community Center in Birdsboro, preparing for a pilgrimage to France with the young people, preaching the Gospel, celebrating the sacraments, or the hundreds of other things you and I make it our business to do...I can hardly restrain myself. Neither can you.

This is because it is our Joy and Care to be represent Christ to the world we live in by our presence, by our words, our touch and our actions, and far beyond anything we could have ever possibly asked or imagined, because it is Jesus who has prepared these pathways for us to walk in.

So as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel “Do not look dismal”. Aren’t those wonderful words for an impish bishop, a senior warden, or the rest of us. For God’s sake, don’t go moping around looking dismal!

And of course, beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.

But you certainly may do this. You may very well let your light so shine before others so that they may see the good you do and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 

Not to draw attention to ourselves, but to give glory to God.

But that’s exactly what I can hardly restrain myself from doing. This is exactly what has drawn me to the work of the church all my life. 

This is Lent. This is what it is to observe a holy Lent. We may give something up or take something up, either way, to mark our devotion to God and to one another. We are to mark the active presence of Christ in  life. You are loaned back into life for a while. You are to represent Jesus with your sheer presence, your words, your touch, your actions.

And because we awe loaned back into life for a while we do not store up treasures for ourselves where thieves break in or steal and where moth and rust corrupts. We lay up treasures where they count; in the hearts and souls of those we love, recognizing that their lives and own own lives are a gift from God that returns to God when the time comes.

The mark of our mortality with which we embrace on Ash Wednesday is the profoundest celebration I know to bring to mind the knowledge that we can hardly restrain ourselves as we set about to do the work that God has given us to do.

Paul puts it this way in the Epistle; “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” That’s what makes our nature so irrepressibly joyful!

The Psalmist says it even more energetically;

1

Bless the LORD, O my soul, *

and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

4

He redeems your life from the grave *

and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;

So go ahead and have a gloomy Lent, rather  an irrepressibly joyful Lent, one in which you too will hardly be able to restrain yourselves, filled with the knowledge that you have been loaned back again for a while so that you can represent Christ to this world. And may you be filled with all the fullness of God.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Fr Paul

Climate Change and the Transfiguration

On the Mountaintop

I remember like it was yesterday the day we took a busload of kids to Mount Sinai. St. Catherine’s, one of the oldest Monasteries in Christendom stands at the foot of the mountain and encloses an example of what we have come to call “the burning bush”. When the wind plays through the leaves, they shimmer in the sunlight and appear to be ablaze with glory. The mountain reaches 7,497 feet toward heaven. The kids all arose at 2am to begin their climb. I begged off and allowed my son Michael to be my eyes for me. 

Upon his return Michael was a changed man. His countenance was transfigured, if you will, with a radiance that can only be explained by what it means to walk in the footsteps of the holy. He told me it was like he could feel Moses with him in his footsteps as he climbed the mountain. The silence he heard was deafening, only his breath and the breathing of strained lungs from his friends who also found their lives changed by this approach toward God.

Not long after they reached the summit, there was a magnificent sunrise...and the silence continued. The kids wrote in their journals of their contact with God there on the mountaintop.

When I was younger I climbed my beloved Mount Washington in New Hampshire...at least, I should say, more accurately and more honestly I climbed a lateral path with a group guided by the Appalachian Mountain Club and reached Bald Knob one October day. It was cold up on the mountain, but the sun was shining, and we were too young to notice any discomfort from either the weather or the exertion.

There we rested and looked out over the Presidential Range. How magnificent. It was as though you could hear the voice of God speaking in your heart. “Here is my creation. Take care of it. Take care of one another. Remember, this is holy”, the voice seemed say.

I can well imagine how it was the day that Peter, James and John went up on the mountain to pray with Jesus. Such is the awe with which one takes to the mountaintop that one can hardly help but pray. 

It would come as no surprise to me that one might see something like the images of Moses and Elijah. After all the Law and the Prophets were written into their hearts as the Law and the Prophets are written into our hearts. Woven into our lives from Sunday School on, the sense of right and wrong; and the desire for just dealings among each other, guides and governs the better angels of our nature.

It is in this spirit that we now come to the Last Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord. On this day we see Jesus transfigured before our very eyes. We see him along with Moses and Elijah, and as they fade away he becomes more and more vividly the imprint of the nature of God. The Law and the Prophets may now be fulfilled by a higher law and a deeper justice. A compassionate love and the courage of reconciliation makes Peace with God and humankind possible. They now complete the old dispensation, under which we lived for so long at the foot of Sinai’s mandate.

Now we live under the mandate of the Love of God made flesh and blood in the person of Jesus. We are changed now from glory to glory. This means for all our days. As it is in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, so too for us in all our joys and sorrows, all our triumphs and failures, all our righteousness and all our sin, God redeems us in our life and death through the life of our Advocate with the Father.

We cannot stay on the mountain, one must hasten to add. As much as we’d like to build lean to’s for the capturing of the moment as Peter suggested to Jesus, he found out all too soon that you cannot capture or box the holy into any kind of container. It is well known that there are these impressive bushes that one can weave into lean to’s in this part of the world. But the holy simply passes as soon as it comes. We come down from the mountain changed, but for us, the radiance of those moments fades as it did from the countenance of Moses when he came away from the tent of meeting. 

We return to the whoop and wharf of the ordinary round and that which seemed so vivid and real now becomes somewhat more diffuse and fading away into memory.

Allow me to recommend that we all spend some time practicing the presence of God as a regular discipline. In prayer and in acts of mercy, may we waken our spirits with the presence of God within us. I do hope some of you will attend our Lenten Classes between the 8 & 10:30 services. I’ve called this particular series of classes “Tracing the Image of God”.

I believe we can do that; I mean “trace God’s image”. You may remember that we are created in the image of God. I don’t mean that we are created to “look like” God. Neither does any serious theologian. It means something much more.

Our Catechism says;

Q.	What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
A.	It means that we are free to make choices: to love, to  create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation  and with God.  Catechism, Book of Common Prayer page 845

You see, to be created in the image of God means to be most genuinely human. In fact we theologians consider it to be an axiom that the more genuinely human we become the more God-like we are. Conversely, the more genuinely God-like God becomes the more human God really is. 

The two meet, we believe, in Jesus. The horizontal line of human experience and the vertical line of Godly love and redemption meet at the nexus of the heart of God and in the human heart.

In these recent months we’ve seen quite a spate of storms. It appears to me that nature is trying to get our attention. My son David recently published a table of charts for Boston Harbor sea levels as they were in the 1890’s, the 1950’s and the present. Guess what...yes Virginia, the sea levels are rising dramatically. And more than that, the glaciers are receding, the Polar Ice Caps are melting and yes if you want to see Glacier National Park, you better be quick about it.

Between Hurricane Sandy and the Blizzard of 2013, it is clear not just from these storms but from the collected evidence of all meteorological data, that there is a climatic change coming upon us caused at least in part by human activity. We will not be able to hide our heads in the sand over the fact for long. For the sand is being swamped by the water. You could drown hiding your head in the sand!

I confess that it has been fun the past few days to track the Blizzard of 2013. David and Joshua Bresnahan and all my friends in New England have been busily posting photographs and videos to help track and document the magnificent power of the storm. One of the videos I posted showed a bunch of young people tossing each other about in the snow like sacks of potatoes. At the shore, they looked out over the sea wall at King’s Beach near my home, and the scene they saw was breathtaking. The roiling and rollicking tempest unleashing its power upon the shore is nothing short of a magnificent and awe inspiring sight.

So then if we are created in the image of God we are created to love, to create, to reason and to live in harmony with creation, then it follows that we might perhaps consider our role in tending to what God has given us. That’s real stewardship. 

The Transfiguration of our personal spirituality is not an event that occurs in isolation but within the context of our relationship with God, one another and all of God’s creation.

Paul warns us that their minds were hardened and that the veil was drawn over their faces. They refused to see Jesus for who he is. Remembering that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life, it begs the question. How can we deny the truth? Now we find ourselves climbing another mountain of God in our own historic moment. What we see as we reach the summit will change our lives. Clearly we stand in need of yet another Transfiguration of sorts.

Like my son Michael when he climbed Sinai yea these many years ago, we will find ourselves climbing with the holiness of God. That holiness is demanding that we care for God’s creation and one another. 

Thus I pray with the collect of the day that we may be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed from glory to glory as we encounter the living Christ in our own day.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Fr Paul

Good News for the Poor!

The Annual Meeting

Fr Paul’s State of the Church Address

“Learning and Doing the Work of Jesus”

In today’s Gospel Jesus said; “I have come to bring Good News to the Poor”. Learning and doing this work is at the heart of the call of God. “Let the oppressed go free”, Jesus says. There are many among us oppressed by poverty, unemployment, anxiety and mental distress. How blind we so often seem to the compassion and love of Jesus so urgently needed right here in front of our very eyes. 

Poverty is nothing new. It has always been with us and it always will be. It is into this milieu that Jesus states his purpose to the world; “I have come to bring Good News to the Poor”. It is a challenge to all of us to live that way.

Today we celebrate how very much this congregation does day in and day out to bring good news to the poor. Your work among the young and old, the poor, the recovery groups, Love INC, and folks who find themselves at the margins of society, is a tribute to how seriously you take these words; “Learning and doing the work of Jesus.” This statement is a banner that we hold over the doorway as we enter this church week by week.

That is who you are called to be. And this Annual Report gives expression, however adequately or inadequately to the work of the congregation. So many give sacrificially and generously to make so much happen in the Name of Jesus in and from this place. Let us celebrate the fact that we too have come to bring Good News to the Poor.

For me this past year has been a pure joy. Since the Great Feast Day of Blessed Patrick we have formed quite a formidable team for Jesus. I am so grateful that God has called us to walk these weeks and months together. I am proud of the way we have rebuilt our music program, how we have cared for young and old alike, and how we hardly skipped a beat as we continued the work of all your myriad ministries. I am especially pleased with how well you have responded to the call to rebuild our membership and how many of you have completed your membership forms. We must continue that work and each of you has God’s blessing and encouragement to invite others among your family, friends and neighbors to come and dwell with one another and with Jesus as we continue to learn and do the work of Jesus. And we made up the deficit by virtue of your generous response to the Summer Effort and a strong Christmas. And when I called on you to help your sisters and brothers through the work of the congregation’s Discretionary Fund, again you responded liberally.

We have also faced into the sadness of loss this year. We knew it was coming, but we are never really ready when the other shoe finally falls. The loss of Cal Adams is a painful reality, even for me who knew him for so short a time. How loving and kind a man. How devoted and driven he was as a great church builder, not just for the fabric of these walls but of the content of the character of the heart of this church. The work of our recovery groups is as much a monument to his ministry as is the Keystone Villa, The Good Shepherd Learning Center or the Parish Life Center. Your goodness and kindness of heart are a tribute to his ministry in your midst. And so as the Prayer Book says, “May this soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in Peace and may light perpetual shine upon him”. 

And now we really must turn our attention to yet another and more permanent transition.  It has been quite a while since Cal’s retirement. We are now working on three years since that time. If you are annoyed with the snail’s pace at which the church deals with transition ministry, I can assure you that the clergy share similar feelings. In the old days, and I have the ability to use that expression advisedly, we had what we called “The Old Boy Network”. Obviously we have to add the other gender to that turn of phrase to reflect the church’s inclusiveness. 

We were once a much more proactive church when it came to clergy recruitment and deployment. I am personally convinced that to leave this matter up to chance and to posture ourselves in a reactive a way is deleterious to our common life. I believe that the church in general must get proactive about transition, and more especially in our specific case. For the sake of the wellbeing of the church, we must discover who it is that God has called to become St. Gabriel’s next rector. In the meantime, I promise you; I will give you my level best to be your priest. 

By now you must have a pretty good idea who I am; just a “simple” parish priest. For me, my marching orders are to celebrate this church as it becomes more and more a “House of Prayer for All People”. I once saw those words across the great west doors of the National Cathedral when I was a boy. Not realizing they come from the 56th Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, not realizing that they were repeated by Jesus at the dramatic climax of his ministry at the cleansing of the Temple, I found those sacred words to be at the heart of my own ministry.

In today’s Epistle Paul tells us that we are one body and that there is no one part of the body more or less important than any other. What we proclaim theologically we must also learn politically and internationally. For whether it is race, class, gender, ethnicity, or orientation, I have given it my heart and soul to proclaim these words of my namesake The Apostle to the Gentiles as being at the heart of the Gospel for me:

“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 3:28

Thus we journey on; 

Bringing Good News to the Poor

Learning and Doing the work of Jesus

Always and again I say always being and becoming; “A House of Prayer for All People”

And may Peace be upon you,

Fr. Paul

Let's Party!

Let’s Party!

My wife will tell you that I don’t need much of an excuse to celebrate. In fact, like many of you, I am old enough now to celebrate if, when I wake up in the morning , I can see the ceiling and my name is not in the morning obits. I’m a happy man when I awaken to greet the new day. Cindy’s grandfather was a stonecutter from Carrara, Italy; where some of the finest stonecutters in the world were born and nurtured. When he woke up in the morning he’d take the newspaper and a cup of coffee and he’d count up the dead Irishmen and the dead Italians and so long as there were more of the former, he’d let out a holler and tell his wife; “We’re ahead!” For him it was like seeing if the Red Sox or the Celtics won the game the night before. There’s always a good reason to celebrate!

And so it is that we come to today's Gospel passage where Jesus found himself in one of the greatest celebrations of a human lifetime; a wedding in Cana of Galilee. I remember our wedding day. It was the last time on this side that my whole family, as I remember it from my childhood, was all together in one place. Cindy’s whole family was there too, and that number dwarfed mine. Our best friends were there and there was that one memorable table where things got a bit out of hand after a bit of an excess of liquid indulgence. That, of course, was a group of my friends.

So here we are likewise, with Jesus and his friends and family. It is early in his ministry as we are early in the church year. Just last week we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. Now we find ourselves in Cana of Galilee, a town nearby Nazareth. Things were going strong when the unthinkable happened. They ran out of wine. Mary, the Blessed Mother, tells Jesus. Then Jesus uses the most respectful form of the word “woman” that there is in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries; a word that suggests the sense of “my beloved” the same word used for wife, and he reminds her, “My hour has not yet come”.

His ultimate Epiphany is yet to come. Here he reminds Mary, later he has to remind his disciples again and again. He is here to be handed over into the hands of power and violence, to be tried, found guilty, even though perfectly innocent, to die a torturous death, and then to rise again for the forgiveness of this very violence (another word for sin), and then as a free gift to us all, for our eternal life. He has probably already explained this to Mary. He will later explain it plainly to his disciples.

“Do whatever he tells you”, she tells the servants.

Then he tells them to bring him the jars used in the Rites of Purification. It is as if Jesus were sanctifying that solemn moment when we commend ourselves to one another in love and devotion for the rest of our lives. How pure is that! How sacred is that moment when, in our youth we declare our love for one another, and live out that declaration for the rest of our days. At least that’s the theory. It works itself out in varying ways then as now, but the intent and the hope are pure. God knows Jesus can redeem us no matter how far we fall from that blessed estate.

So they do as he bids. They bring him the jars used in the rites of purification and, as instructed, they fill them to the brim with water. 

“Now draw some off”, Jesus tells them.

And when they did, the caterer of the feast was impressed. “Whoa,” he might have said. “This is good wine. Usually you serve the good stuff first, and when the taste buds are anesthetized by copious imbibing you can then serve the inferior vintage until the party gives out in the wee small hours of the morning.” 

Not so here. This vintage is of God. It is the very best vintage of all. God honors the wedding guests with generosity. The party continues. It is such a memorable celebration that in the wake of the death and resurrection of Jesus, his first miracle is recalled by the early church because the imagery of marriage is central to the Proclamation of the Gospel itself.

Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church is his Bride. We are the beloved of God. He, like any man or woman worth his salt will give his life to protect his family. And so he did.

Our enemy is human violence, aka “sin”. That which is within us that seeks to destroy ourselves or others needs redemption. We need this salvage operation. And as we come to Jesus, one by one, week by week, altar rail by altar rail, that salvage work continues all the days of our life. After all the only thing that can effectively deal with that predisposition to violence is the love of God and the love he demands of us for one another.

Wonder of wonders God’s salvation plan is for everyone. This marriage is not just for one sort, it is for all. Just this week the National Cathedral announced that all legal marriages will be celebrated there. For God’s sake lets celebrate that!

But as we celebrate that, lets not forget those who cannot love everyone. There is a young man I would like to ask you to pray for this week. His name is Terrance. He died on Monday. He couldn’t take it. I mean, there were those who felt they needed to “out” him. He lived in West Virginia, and one of my son’s friends knew him well. I can tell you from personal experience that there is an exception for many to love those like Terrance. There are families, schools, workplaces, and yes, even churches where some folks cannot embrace people like Terrance. 

And yet there are so many, like Terrence, who have given the church and the world so much art, literature and music, how could we do anything but thank the likes of Terrance. As Blessed Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles put it; "There are many gifts, but the same spirit."

For all too many God’s grace does not always embrace people like Terrance. It cannot embrace two of my own sons who happen to be like Terrance. It cannot embrace Charlie, a dear friend of my sons and a dear friend of Terrance. Charlie tells me he was a good guy. 

This kind of restriction on God’s love gives the Church a bad name. And as the prophet said in today’s first lesson; “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent.” So too for Terrance’s sake, I will not keep silent.

“Your love, O God, reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness to the clouds

How priceless is your love O God”.

So says the Psalmist today.

Therefore we celebrate with Jesus at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee. We celebrate with Jesus who invited common fisherfolk, tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, eunuchs, poor folk, prisoners, and all other sorts and conditions who live at the margins of this and all social orders in every age.

Interestingly enough, these very people were driven away from the Temple. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, The Scribes, and the Doctors of the Law, why the whole Sanhedrin; all these biblical literalists of the day looked askance at Jesus for the company he kept. And yet it was all the above he brought to the Temple precincts at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem; these very same sorts and conditions who spread palm branches at his feet as he rode on in majesty on a common donkey.

You know, we have done the right thing. We are embracing the teachings of Jesus. We believe that all people are included within God’s saving embrace. Now, all can enjoy the benefits and responsibilities of membership and ministry at every level in the Episcopal Church. Granted we are a tiny percentage in the world of faith. But we are not here to be successful. We are here to be faithful. God will reward such faithfulness as many will be drawn to this total and unconditional love.

So then, lets celebrate. Lets come to this Table of our God and feast with Jesus and all his friends. This is because Jesus is still alive in each and every one of you. For as long as you have the courage to love all God’s people there is hope in this tired and sin sick old world.

Let's celebrate!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Fr Paul