All My Time

All My Time is Your Time

A very happy Fourth of July weekend to you! What a beautiful day. What a beautiful weekend. As for the Red Sox, 21-2! Oh well, the less said about that right now the better.  

Some of you may be old enough to remember “Fiddler on the Roof”, the wonderful Broadway play made into a movie. In it the relationship between Tevye and God is portrayed to be an ongoing conversation. 

In fact most authorities in the discipline of Spirituality recognize that our relationship with God is a continuing internal dialogue. I'm not talking about hearing voices. There are medications for that. But I am talking about the language of the human heart

For it is within the human heart that we discover the heart of God. As we dwell within God so God dwells within us. A favorite passage from John’s Gospel says it well; “Abide in me as I abide in you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may becomplete. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as have loved you'.” ~John 15

Occasionally, I find myself writing what some might consider poetry. Early Thursday morning as I reflected on some rather mundane matters in my journal. These words came to me as I thought of my limited time on earth and God’s eternity. I was taken by the thought that as we dwell within God and as God dwells within us we then have this eternal connection.

These are the words that came to me.

All My Time

All my time

is Your time

My time is what it is

And so is Yours

As I dwell within Your heart

So You dwell within mine

The eternal and everlasting

Connection

Though seemingly tenuous on this side

It is a connection nonetheless

For now, this is enough

More than enough

To rejoice the heart

Thanks be to God

Thanks be to You

I posted the poem on Facebook and published it to my blog and a number of folks commented. But the one who caught my attention was a response from Erica, a young woman who recently had a heart transplant. She had been a parishioner of mine in Salem, MA and she suffered from a life threatening form of cancer. The chemotherapy put the cancer in remission but her heart was damaged in the process to the point that she needed a new one. She was very young, in her early twenties. She married and somehow had a child through it all, and prayed to God that she might live long enough to see her child off to kindergarten. Her prayer was answered in the affirmative. She remains on my daily prayer list and she often comments on my Facebook posts. I imagined how she might have heard the words I had written;

“As I dwell within Your heart

So You dwell within mine”

I thought of her heart, so damaged and then her new and transplanted heart. So now she lives and moves and has her being in God through the grace and gift of a heart from someone else whose life was given in order that she might live. So it is that in the most literal terms that she took the imagery I had used in my poem and applied it to the very beating of her heart.

We read of Naaman the Syrian in today’s First Lesson. Talk about mortal enemies then as now. This foreign soldier takes center stage in the Biblical narrative in the Hebrew Scriptures. Isn't this an interesting twist on Patriotism on the 4th of July weekend. He suffered from Leprosy and sought healing from the King of Israel. It scared the King to death that Naaman was seeking to pick a fight on the pretext that he, the King was on a par with God to grant life and death, health and healing. Alas it was Elisha, the Man of God who was able to grant this healing. I love how Naaman wanted to dictate the conditions under which his healing was to be administered; face to face and in one of the rivers of Syria. Naaman had much to learn about humility and obedience from the Man of God. So do we all. 

Then, as I thought about Erica and Naaman or any one of us for that matter, I thought of that plea that comes from the heart and soul of all folk of faith who understand that we are all in the hands of God at all times and in all places.

The Psalmist says;

“2 O Lord my God, I cried out to you, *

and you restored me to health.

3 You brought me up, O Lord, from the dead; *

you restored my life as I was going down to the grave.”

~Psalm 30:2,3

Ultimately we’re all in the hands of God, but not just ultimately. We are in God’s hands immediately in the very here and now of our living and breathing, indeed in every beat of the heart. The moment the living and breathing stops, the moment the hearts stops, life is over. Just ask Erica. And if you suffer from leprosy or other malady, you understand that your life depends upon the life giving, healing power of God.

It is in the recognition of the immediacy of God’s presence that we dwell in God and God dwells in us. In today’s Gospel, for instance, Jesus sends us out two by two to go into the cities, towns and villages he himself had planned to visit and to prepare the way for him. There was so much work to do. The harvest is always plentiful, but there are so few folks to do the work. All because of the immediacy of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus says, "Know this, the Kingdom of God has come near."

As the disciples did their “advance” work they discovered that the very demons submitted to them. Evil itself found its match in those who did the work of God in the Name of Jesus. 

There is much Gospel work to be done. This is why Jesus came into the world.This is why Jesus is sending us into the world two by two. As we go out in the name of God and armed with the power of Jesus we will find that the demons will submit to the power of God. And you know what God's work is. It involves the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the sick and dying, the marginalized, and the sin sick souls seeking forgiveness. As I said, there is plenty of work to do.

Jesus smiled."I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning”. When we go out to do the work that God has given us to do, Satan falls. Evil falls. And Jesus smiles again. 

Erica is a whole new creation since the gift of a new heart. Even Naaman the enemy soldier, is a whole new creation since his healing from Leprosy. You and I are new creations as we busy ourselves with God’s work.

As Paul the Apostle puts it, so do I; “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.” ~Galatians 6:7-9

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

Fr Paul

All My Time

All My Time

All my time

is Your time

My time is what it is

And so is Yours

As I dwell within Your heart

So You dwell within mine

The eternal and everlasting

Connection

Though seemingly tenuous on this side

It is a connection nonetheless

For now, this is enough

More than enough

To rejoice the heart

Thanks be to God

To You

Fr Paul

Cindy said; "Love one another"

Cindy said “Love One Another”

The Gospel gives us an account of Jesus’ confrontation with a madman. Mental illness of some form or another had driven this poor soul to behaviors that were bizarre on any account. Thankfully, this fellow did not have an assault rifle. We are told in the Gospel that he ran around with no clothing, had no home or connection to family and friends, but like the menace of a lone wolf, he lived among the tombs. When he came face to face with the goodness and love of Jesus, he went into a rant; “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?”

He begged Jesus not to torment him for Jesus had already begun to command the unclean spirits to come out of him. Interestingly enough, not only did Jesus have the ability to recognize mental illness, he also had the authority and power to restore the victim’s soul to sanity.

Just last week another madman vented his fury on innocents who were out partying. Several years ago another madman unleashed his rage on children in a Connecticut school. Only a year ago, it was a house of worship during a bible study. In Colorado, there have been mass shootings in a movie theatre and a high school. On an on it goes. 

Lets face it, we are a uniquely violent country historically and presently. Our love affair with the gun and now assault weapons has put us into a situation where we cannot avoid taking a long hard look at ourselves. At least I hope and pray we do. Most civilized and developed countries have developed laws and regulations to help minimize the violence of these weapons, most notably Australia. After a mass shooting in that country, they clamped down on the weapon’s sales and not only has there not been a mass shooting since, but the homicide and suicide rates have declined radically. Not so here. We want our guns. So be it.

As our Lord said, “The who live by the sword, shall die by the sword.” ~Matthew 26:52

Last week I was on retreat in the Detroit area. Taking time to read, rest, pray, renew old friendships, and take some time in quiet to be with God is the ancient way of the Church. It is a way of restoring the human soul to sanity and keeping it there. The Anamchara Fellowship, of which I am a part, is a gathering of like minded souls, whose friendships run deep and true. The word “Anamchara” is a Celtic word meaning “soul friend.” We are a dispersed order of religious folks. Our community is dispersed in marriages, the workday world, some retired, some still working, some married, folks in many walks of life; gay straight, black white, rich poor; a kaleidoscope of other hues of humanity. Yet we are one in friendship, like any church. Indeed we are less like any worshipping community throughout the world.

On the other hand, we also live in a world of many lonely and disconnected souls. We find ourselves fragmented by political ideology, especially in the here and now of our country. The more fragmented we are by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and orientation, the more we risk falling out of sanity into a world of depression and mental and emotional stress or falling into suspicion of the other or falling into hatred or excusing violence; verbal or otherwise against those different from "us". This kind of disconnectedness is dangerous. Fanning the flames of this kind of fear and suspicion is not only dangerous, it is frankly madness.

Thankfully, many of us have grown up enough to get help when we need it. There is no shame in accepting a diagnosis and taking medication. Good heavens, it is a sign of well being when any one of us discovers our need for help. As Jesus put it; “Blessed are those who know their need of God.” You can substitute the words “Higher Power” for “God” if you like. Coming to terms with the truth within the human heart requires a journey toward making friends, making “soul friends” within the heart of the human self as well as with the “other”.

God knows poor Elijah, had to confront the demons within himself. Not only were those demons within him. They were real. Ahab and Jezabel had resolved to have him done away with. Elijah found himself alone, for as the scripture says, he spoke to God, “I alone am left.” What loneliness that must have been. And his life wasn’t worth two cents or so he thought. And so it was, that he was driven into the madness of a dark night of the soul; there were great winds, an earthquake and a fire, but God was not in any of that. Then came the revelation. God is not discovered in any of these dramatics, God reveals the divine nature rather in the sheer silence, in that “still small voice” of which we speak and sing. It is one of the reasons I love going on my annual retreats. It is in time away, that God will refresh the human soul.

Among my favorite selections of the Psalter is today’s 42nd Psalm. I find in the words of the Holy Scripture a mirror into the soul. Such as these words today;

“1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, * 

so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; * 

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?”

Whether we know it or not, our souls long for the living God as a dear longs for a refreshing mountain stream. Every morning in our worship with the Anamchara Fellowship we sing the Psalm; 

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,

This is what I seek

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,

All the days of my life.”

What then do we say in response to the hatred we see in the world we live in? How do we answer it all, as the madness of our time seems to multiply. What are we to say on Father's Day to one another? That could have been one of my kids on a dance floor in Orlando. I've got two gay kids and I love my children like you love yours. Cindy said it well, as I was preparing for this morning. Just remind them, she said;

“Love one another”. 

That’s what it all comes down to again and again. In fact, Jesus calls it a new commandment. It was then. It is now. A whole new commandment, a new way of life;

“Love one another”

You and I are not to be divided into friends and enemies. We are not to be "listed" and deported according to nationality or religion. We're all one in this country. My freedom as an American is that I need not be afraid or suspicious of folks because they are maybe a bit different. Every morning and night when I go for a walk down the Lynn Scenic Walkway by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea, I'll see young and old; the lame and the halt. I'll hear Engish, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Russian and God knows what, within a short space of time. Mind you, I do keep a watchful eye out. We were taught back in the old "hood" in Somerville to be "street smart". Even Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents, harmless as doves." ~Matthew 10:16

But ultimately, day in and day out, every walk of life; "Love one another." This is the one great quality of life that will save us from falling back into a deepening cycle of violence that leads nowhere but into the madness of war.

As my namesake Paul the Apostle put it; "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

Steady as she goes shipmates, "Love one another."

And Happy Father's Day.

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

Fr Paul

There's A Song in My Heart!

There’s A Song in My Heart

There is a song in my heart this morning. There is a song in all our hearts this morning. We sing a song of gratitude to God for the ministry of Carol Amos, our parish organist and music director. There is a song in our hearts for Paisley Jayde Wilson this morning, as she enters into the community of faith through the sacrament of Baptism.

Those who sing, pray twice as St. Augustine once said more than 1500 years ago. When we sing, there is a melody in our hearts, and there is poetry in the words we use in these grand hymns. If we let them dwell within us, they have the power to change our lives, to heal and to strengthen us, to teach and empower us for God’s mission and ministry in this world.

What are we here for?

What song do you think there is in the heart of God?

Let me suggest a reminder; “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end that all who believe in shouldn't perish but have everlasting life.” ~John 3:16. 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I look at the world with all its violence, warfare, terror, bigotry and oppression, I find it anything but lovable. Sometimes when I look at the lives of those I love, it can get discouraging. And when I read the daily papers or watch the news, I think, what a mess!

But not so with God. God loved the world so much that the only begotten was willing to give his life for the whole of it notwithstanding the wickedness of it all.

This is what bring a song to my heart. Because this is nothing less than the song of God. Week after week after week Carol and this choir work diligently to sing these songs so that we too may learn to love the world with all the love with which God loves it. It would be easy to wash our hands of it all. But that not how God works.

This is not how Jesus does things either. This is not how Jesus sees you. To Jesus, you are infinitely precious. We see it in a newborn, don’t we? We see the innocence, the loveliness, and beauty of this brand new child. Our hearts are filled with love, joy and hope aren’t they? 

You would give your life for this child, wouldn’t you? I’d give mine for my children. This is how it is with God. He gave his life for each and every one of us. And no matter how many messes you’ve made, no matter how hopeless it may seem, God never gives up on us, or anyone else for that matter and certainly not for this tired and sinful old world. There’s not a soul on the planet God will give up on.

God is filled with love for it all. And there is a song in my heart because of it. We thank Carol Amos today for her ministry. We baptize Paisley Jayde today and mark her as God’s own child forever. By the way she already is God’s child. She is already forgiven. What this water and this baptism does is that it helps us see what God has already done for her.

If God so loves the world we live in,  what about us? How much do we love this very dangerous and wicked place?

Imagine if you will every single baptized person on the face of this planet, every single congregation, every single denomination, all churches, all synagogues, all mosques…imagine the collective power of all of us when combined.

If we all organize our lives and worship places around the needs of the communities we live in…if every single child of God were to dedicate himself or herself to some form of servant ministry, imagine what that combined effort could accomplish. 

Imagine if we were all on the same page, all pulling in the same direction. For example, one of the most noble symbols for this country is the American eagle. Have you ever seen an eagle soar on the updrafts of a strong canyon wind? How magnificent! Notice it takes both wings for an eagle to soar. In fact, it takes both wings for any bird even to get off the ground and fly, let alone soar.

That’s both wings; the left wing and the right wing. We sometimes forget this one simple and obvious fact of life. Just because we may differ theologically, politically, or on the matter of any other opinion. You’ll never fly, let alone soar, none of us ever will until we come to understand that we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord. Whether we are Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, Rich or Poor, Black or White, Male, Female, Gay or Straight…whoever we are we are all of one blood. Blessed Paul the Apostle put it in these magnificent words; "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

Until we come to understand this one key fact of the Gospel, we will find ourselves hobbled by the wickedness of divisiveness. Today there is a song in our hearts. One song. Today there is a Baptism in our Church. Today there is One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of All.

In the Name of the God, the most holy, undivided and everlasting Trinity.

Fr Paul

Would You Take a $20

Would You Take a $20

Suppose I hold up this relatively new $20 dollar bill, and ask how many of you would be glad to take it? Would you? If it were a $100 dollar bill you'd take it in a heartbeat! Suppose I were to crumple it up in my hands, would you still be willing to take it? Suppose I sully it in dirt and grime, how about then? Would you still take it? And if I were to toss it disdainfully on the ground and stomp on it and treat it as shamefully as I could, what would it be worth to you then?

Anybody?

Yes, it is still worth $20.

Some of you might be horrified at such treatment of legal tender. I was when I first heard the story. Something innately within me cried out for respect of legal tender. 

So then, what about you? How much do you suppose you are worth? Especially in the eyes of God? Suppose you are crumpled up by misfortune? Suppose you are dirty, grimy and sullied by sin of your own doing or somebody else’s? Suppose you are stomped on by oppression and shamefully mistreated at home or in the workplace or anywhere else; how much are you worth then in the eyes of God?

Exactly! Your value is not diminished in the least in the eyes of God whatever becomes of you. 

In Jesus’ campaign speech, or what we more commonly call the Sermon on the Mount, he was fond of saying this: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” ~Matthew 6:26 

In this same speech or sermon at the very outset, he blessed the poor and those who mourn, the meek and those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers, and he blessed also those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He repeats the essence of this message in what biblical scholars refer to as the Sermon on the Plain which you can read in Luke 6:17-49. Because the essence of the message occurs in different places, many scholars suppose that Jesus went back to these themes time and again as he made his way around Galillee. 

What price then does God put on your head? Of how much value then are you? Can you put a price tag on a human life? your own or anybody else’s?

It is one of the mysteries of the Gospel that your life is worth as much as the life of the Savior. God gives his life for you in the person of Jesus. You are worth dying for. God will give his life for you. God did give his life for you in the person of Jesus. 

The Psalmist says "worship God in the beauty of holiness." What does it mean for us to "worship" God? Interestingly enough, if we look at the word “worship” in the dictionary, we learn that it is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it can be described as a feeling of reverence to God or to anything or to anyone that is sacred. Typically, worship comes with a set of rites and rituals to help us recognize that which is sacred and holy. As a verb, worship is the act of rendering reverence and homage to God or to something or someone who is holy. 

You see, when we come together week by week to worship God, we ascribe to God the Glory and Honor that is due God’s Name. We recognize God's worth to us. God's value is infinite, absolute, the ultimate worthiness of our lives. But what of your value as part and parcel in the act of worship? To me this is the key to our worship. We learn in these songs we sing, in these Holy Writings we listen to week by week, even on occasion, in a decent sermon or two, and above all in the sacrament; that God’s life has been and is being given for us in order that we might learn not of God’s worth alone, but our own as well. For insofar as God's worth is infinite, absolute and the ultimate reality of life, so too we come to discover the same of ourselves. 

In today’s first lesson, what upsets Elijah and this whole business of the prophets of Baal is that the folks had gone off to worship graven images. They had forgotten God. They actually had forgotten much more than what can be understood merely to be a petulant and jealous God. No, there is much more to this contest between the prophets of Baal and Elijah than a bit of trickery as to who could make the carcass of a bull ignite in flames. 

What had happened is that the folks had forgotten their own worth in the eyes of God. For what really matters to God is that we understand our worth to God as much as God’s worth to us. Instead off we go chasing after some graven image or another time and again throughout our history.

In our own time, what is the object of our worship? What is our bottom dollar? In colloquial idiom we call it The Almighty Dollar as if it were a god to us. Take a good look at Wall Street; you may notice that there is a bull ensconced there and there are those whose greed and love of money reaches such an extent that the bull of Wall Street becomes an idol and an object of worship to many. I needn’t point out to you that at the bottom of the crash of 1929 or 2008 was greed gone wild. Time and again we need to learn and relearn that such misdirected worship will always come crashing down upon itself. 

In today’s Epistle, Paul notices a similar phenomenon. Have the folks forgotten the Gospel so soon? Are they chasing after other gods so quickly. Has the Gospel message become so quickly confused with the secularism of their time?

And what of today’s Gospel? It seems appropriate that a soldier comes to the fore on Memorial Day weekend. Jesus is astonished at his faith. In fact the entire Gospel passage is astonishing. This particular soldier has a profound respect for the Jewish People. That’s unusual right there. An occupation force is more likely to despise the people and the place it occupies and vice versa. But not so here. In fact, this particular Centurion was instrumental in building the Synagogue. Therefore both the Jewish elders and the Centurion have a profound respect and admiration for one another. For this particular Centurion, the slave who was sick was of deep value to him. The people were of value. Even their God was of value to him. And more than that Jesus was of value. He knew that as he gave orders to his soldiers, so too, all Jesus had to do was give the word. 

This is astonishing! Jesus said that nowhere in all of Israel had he seen such faith. Here was a man who understood what it meant to worship. Worship led him to value people, even if they were slaves, or a foreign people who worshipped a foreign God. For this particular Centurion people were of much more value than the whole pantheon of Roman gods. Nowhere had Jesus seen such faith. 

This soldier got it. This is what Jesus had come to teach us; "Love one another."

How astonishing indeed! Think of the foreigner in your life. Think of the slave and the poor and how well they are treated and spoken of. Think of those who worship God differently than we do. How well do we honor “the other” in our time and in our nation? 

Our lives are of immeasurable value to God. All lives do; domestic and foreign. However crumpled, sullied by sin or stomped on by oppression and violence, in the eyes of God we all remain of infinite value.

The Psalmist wants us to “sing a New Song to God”.

The Psalmist wants us to “worship the God in the beauty of holiness.” For then we shall see the beauty of holiness.

Then we shall see the holiness of all God's people.

"Sing to God a new Song!"

In the Name of God, the most holy, undivided and everlasting Trinity.

Mother's Day: Call it an Intervention!

Ascensiontide & Mother's Day

It is Ascension Sunday and we celebrate this day the fact that Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God on high to become our Advocate and Judge. Isn't that a curious juxtaposition of words. How curious that these two words are set together so as to open for us a means to maintain an Honest to God creative tension. Jesus, at one and the same time an Advocate for us for the forgiveness of our sins, and Judge to keep us accountable to God and ourselves for our behaviors. As we read in the Book of Revelation; "See, I am coming soon, my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work." Thanks be to God. 

Happy Mother's Day. I do hope that there is an appropriate amount of fussing and flowers and dinners today in honor of those among us who give so much that we might know life, and love and joy. There will be some of that in our family, I can assure you. Having said that, I must tell you that my mom could be a feisty and ferocious woman. We did have our difficult moments. But she also gave me much to be thankful for including some backbone. Indeed, the apple does not fall far from the tree and I too can have my own feisty and ferocious moments. 

She loved us in her own way. I remember one day in particular, when I was still very young. I was venturing out on the rocks in Gloucester, and didn't realize how slippery those rocks could be. She called out for me to return, and I pretended not to hear her and continued further out on the rocks. She hollered out to me using my full name for emphasis in a way that indicated she was becoming somewhat irritated. I ignored her. And then my foot met one of those slippery spots which was as slick as grease. My feet went out from under. me, I went flying, and landed on my back. The impact knocked the wind out of me. When I looked up, there she was reaching out to me to carry me back to safety. She used some colorful language which I also learned from other members of my working class family in Somerville. It was an intervention that I shall never forget.

I learned that unconditional love and intervention have a direct relationship to one another.

May is the month of the Mother of Jesus especially so among our sisters and brothers in the Roman tradition. The example of of the Holy Family; Jesus, Mary and Joseph is exemplary as we take note of Mother's Day and that dimension of the human and Godly character that seeks to nurture and care and love. This dimension of our Journey to God is indeed worth noting and celebrating.

It is not surprising then that we see judgment and advocacy, and unconditional love and intervention as proclaimed this day as being two side of the very same coin. 

We love our children unconditionally, of course. But what do we do when we see them on a course of self-destruction? Shrug our shoulders as if there is nothing we can do until they hit bottom? Or do we put ourselves at risk and venture out on the rocks to snatch them out of the jaws of danger?

We live in an increasingly secular world. There are those who accuse us of holding onto "The God Delusion" as Richard Dawkins, the famous contemporary atheist calls it. It is a world that believes it can go it alone. That also includes many of our children. For so many we are children of science to the exclusion of any notion of God.

The problem of holding to such a notion is that it is simply not true. It is the greater delusion by far to think we can go it alone; either without God or without one another. As John Donne, the famous English metaphysical poet and Anglican clergyman once noted; 

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 

own were; any man's death diminishes me, 

because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom 

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

We discover time and again that we cannot go it alone. Even those of us who do believe in God, we need to learn every single day of our lives how urgent a matter it is to be Honest to God with ourselves and one another. 

Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Albert Einstein once observed that "religion without science is blind" how true, but he went on to say "science without religion is lame". Interesting statement! Imagine looking at the wonder of the universe either in its immensity or at its most minute, without a reverence for the creation. What emptiness!

No, the Scientific method requires of us the curiosity and rigorous honesty to ask the right questions. It is not a pursuit of all the answers as much as it is the pursuit of framing the right questions. 

The same can be said of our Spirituality. For more than a quarter of a century, I have been keeping a journal in order to explore the inner mystery of my attempt to love God, love my neighbor and love myself. There are no easy answers. But it is not the answers that help me as much as the ability to frame up the questions. 

For me the search for inner truth, relational truth, scientific truth and Godly truth are all of the same sacred quest. It is the search for the Truth itself that is at the root of our deepest yearning; As Jesus said; "You shall know the Truth and the Truth that shall make you free". ~John 8:32

Call it an intervention; It is into this world that the Child is born.

God's Name is "Love". Love is much more than warmth. It is Honest to God Truth. You know that Jesus was a truth teller. Being honest brought him into conflict often particularly with the religious authorities of the day. Pharisees, Sadduccees, Scribes, and Doctors of the Law often found themselves in conflict with Jesus.

This God business is a matter the Joy of Jesus. It is also a matter of life and death folks, Honest to God!

I believe that without God, we set ourselves up for all kinds of sin. The human being is created to know and to love God. We are called into Covenant with God. To ignore this one central fact of our very creation is to put ourselves into great and immediate peril. 

This wonderful little story of Paul and Silas in Philippi in Macedonia is a case in point. They cured a fortune teller and seeing their hope of financial gain disappear, the folks conjured up some charges and Paul and Silas ended up in jail. The ensuing earthquake led the jailer to see himself in immediate peril and Paul then told him not to harm himself. The jailer then understood where he stood with God and declared "What must I do to be saved?" 

Paul tells him; "Believe on the Lord Jesus." There is more to belief than a few syllables. Belief is the fruit of that earth shattering realization that our entire being depends on an encounter with the living God. Baptism is a good beginning but it is only a beginning for each and all of us. Daily we turn to God. Moment by moment we set the compass of our lives to True North, Honest to God. 

Without salvation, we find ourselves subject to the sinful nature of a world that seeks to destroy us. Conflict, violence, hatred, bigotry, oppression and injustice are just the beginning of our sinful nature. We are also subject to the self destructive tendencies human nature is prone to. We may not always take the word sin seriously. We do so at our own peril.

What must we do to be saved? Believe. But when you believe put your heart and soul into it! Jesus the One Ascended to the Right hand of God is both our Advocate and Judge, thanks be to God. On this Mother's Day may our hearts be filled with all the fullness of God. 

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

Fr Paul.