Why would you get him a book?

Why would you get him a book?

There’s a story that one day Peter Bogdanovich was visiting the director John Ford. “I got Duke a book for his birthday,” said Bogdanovich. There was a long pause as Ford thought about this. “He’s already got a book,” he finally said.

Well, gee, so do I. But – is one book really enough? Not all books are alike; we read different books different ways. How to read a book… depends on the book.

For example, we read War and Peace with … a sturdy bookstand – and patience: it’s as long as eight of the world’s best-loved novels bound in one convenient volume.

We read some light entertainment quickly – and easily set it aside if we look up once before page 50 (the infamous ‘fifty page rule’). Or we consume it like candy until we’re done with it.

A ‘non-fiction’ bestseller we might read dutifully, hoping to be informed as well as engaged. And perhaps we read it with a critical eye, wondering what the author’s argument is and how important it is to learning the subject matter. “It’s not as simple as the clichés say it is,” goes one cliché – and we’re glad to have an argument to propel us through a mound of useful, good-for-you, facts.

When we read a devotional book we may read for inspiration or contemplation. There is something peaceful about the reasonable, charitable tone of some author’s voices – like a quiet oasis in the midst of the bustle of the city.

When we read a more in-depth work of religion we may want to do so, as C. S. Lewis put it, “with a pencil gripped between our teeth,” working our way through the argument. And you might ask, where does this book lead me? Is it compatible with what I know of God from Scripture, prayer, and the teaching of the Church?

When we read the Bible we encounter the foundations of faith through several types of literature all bound together. For example: there is narrative – the stories of David and of Ruth come to mind; there is poetry – the Song of Songs and the prophecies of Isaiah; there are the hymns of God’s people, the Psalms; there are aphorisms – Proverbs; exhortations and arguments – in some of Paul’s writings; and there are the incomparable Gospels.

And of course all of these can be read both critically – to inform our minds – and as prayer, to warm our hearts. A cousin remarked to me there is a great difference between reading Scripture in these ways; to have the message clear in our minds is part of mature Christian life, and to bring the message into the heart – is pure joy.

What I’ll be reading this fall probably will include some of each kind of book – from recreational to theological to devotional - and among them will be a list of ‘required reading’…

This fall I’m embarking on a new adventure in lifelong learning. With the recommendation of the bishop, I've applied to - and been accepted into - the Seattle University program in Pastoral Leadership. This means that for a couple of days a month, from September through May, on my own time, I will be a student again. In that program I expect I will learn much that will inform my work as a pastor and refresh my soul as a believer.


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Forgiveness Sunday

Forgiveness Sunday
September 14, 2008

Here we are again, with good old Charlie Brown. Lucy is holding the football, and Charlie Brown is eager to practice the kickoff. But he knows – he knows! – that as soon as he gets up to the ball, Lucy will snatch it away, and he’ll miss and land on his back. Again. But she says, Oh, Charlie Brown, have you lost all your faith in humanity? And so – he goes for it. And at the last second, as he kicks, she snatches the ball away, and he lands flat on his back. He is lying there, and she leans over him, to say, “Isn’t it better this way, Charlie Brown? Isn’t it better to trust people?”

(PEANUTS by Charles Schulz, 1961, reprinted today)

Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This is Forgiveness Sunday: the Sunday every year when we remember Jesus’ saying to forgive one’s enemies not just 7 times, but as many as 70 times 7.

It is three days after we remember the events of September 11, 2001, when nearly three thousand people died in a coordinated sequence of terrorist attacks.

If you were to pray for one person each day who died in those attacks, and had started that very day, you would not be finished going through the list for the first time until the middle of next October.

It is, this year, the day before the feast of the Holy Cross – when we remember the death of one, for all, that turned the world around, from death to life.

What would it look like to forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven – or seven hundred times seven? What kind of world would it be? And what would it take to get there?

It would take a miracle.

God would have to go first.

Jesus gives us a clue – in his story of the impossibly wealthy person who demanded of, then forgave, an immense sum from her servant. As if God were to demand from us all that we have from him – all that we owe him – and then were to turn around and tell us that the slate is wiped clean, that our debt is forgiven.

All we have to do, it appears from the parable, is to go and – on our own small scale – do the same for those who are in our debt.

“Pay me that thou owest!” is the slave’s response.

It is the response of a person who acts as if he is still in bondage. He doesn’t know he is free; he still has the mentality of a man in chains.

The free person’s response is different.

Because we are set free, indeed, because we can testify – as Chris Tomlin sings:

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace

Then we can forgive, then we can on our own humble scale begin to imagine, begin to live into, a world set free by the mercy and the grace of the living God.

What would it look like? Not on a political scale, not even that –

What would it look like if someone was to demand of me my cloak and I gave my coat as well? If, pressed into service by a passing soldier, I carried his gear for him not one mile but two? If someone were to strike me on the cheek and I simply offered the other?

What would it look like to live as if the gospel were a practical guide to life?

What would it look like to set down the weapons of darkness and put on the armor of light – to put on the mercy and grace and forgiveness, and strength in truth, of Christ?

For his way is a way of truth and righteousness and justice and strength.

The peace of God is no false spring, no fake hope. It is real.

Look at how direct Christ is: he brooks no dishonesty or falsehood or false pride – or false modesty.

The woman caught in adultery is brought to him – and he says to her accusers, let the one without sin cast the first stone. That is enough for them to scatter. When they are gone, he turns to her, and says, “Go – and do not sin again.”

It is not forgetting, it is not denying, it is not saying to the one who has trespassed, “Oh, never mind – whatever. What you do is of no significance to me. (You are of no significance to me.)”

No. Christ gives to each the dignity that is their due – he does not lay aside their sin without acknowledgment: forgiveness is not dismissal.

He sees the person – and calls them to account, like the unjust steward in the parable; he calls them to a new way of being – a way of justice and truth, acknowledging their sins, and then – then – moving forward.

Once the chains are removed, then they are free.

Once the chains are removed, we – you and I – are free.

And that is the freedom he calls us to, one made possible only by the Holy Cross of Christ: for in his sacrifice on the behalf of the whole world, once offered, once made, came the forgiveness of the world, the reconciliation to God himself of all his creatures.

Now we are called, to make our own lives part of that discipline of forgiveness, part of that regime of reconciliation, no longer living as dark forms in the clashing night, but in the dawning of the day to become part of the army of light – to bear in his service the armor of day, to bring forth and make manifest the victory, through the holy Cross, of the Reconciler, the Light of the world.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.


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Pentecost XVIII
Exodus 14:19-31
Exodus 15:1b-11,20-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35


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H O L D F A S T

Good news – and a challenge: As we hear the stories of God at work in his people, and receive encouragement in the life of grace, we hear proclaimed the good news of God in Christ. We hear his call to serve, and his promise to be there with us. The one who makes the promise is faithful to see it through.

The God who made us is the God who redeems us.
The God who calls us is the God who empowers us and sends us forth.

The God of mystery is the God of history.
The God whom the people of old encountered is the God of today.
God delivered them and gave them the pathway to freedom; so he will for us.
We, like they, encounter God on the ground of his own choosing.

Abraham met him in the persons of three strangers who came to the oaks, where he and Sarah gave them their hospitality – and knew God was present when bread was broken. Isaac and Rebecca met him in obedience and sacrifice, and in continuing faithfulness. Jacob met God in strange places: in dreams, his pillow a rock, and by a stream, where he wrestled the stranger until daybreak.

Moses beyond the wilderness comes to the mountain of God. He turns aside to see a bush burn and not perish. And there, on the ground of God’s choosing, he encounters the living presence of God.

Moses finds himself on holy ground. In this strange and surprising place, he finds – his vocation. God calls to him: and he replies, “Here I am.”

I have heard my people cry.
I have come to deliver them.
I have come to lead them home.

I will send you:
Who? Me?
I will be with you:
Who are you? Reveal yourself – give me your name!

I am the God of Being, the God of Mystery: I AM WHO I AM.

I am the God of Becoming, the God of History: I am the God of your father – yes, Moses, the father you cannot even remember – and I am the God of his fathers, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

I am the God of the mother who nurtured you – and of her mothers, of Sarah and Rebecca and Leah and Rachel.

I am the God they encountered, the God of the Promise: and I am sending you – to carry forward my promise to a new generation. To my people.

(Will he go?)

Peter thought he had a handle on Jesus, on who he was: he named him – you are the Messiah! But he hardly knew what he had. Messiah, indeed: but God’s Messiah, one whose path is downward mobility, not up to a world throne but down through the humiliation of death on a cross even to the grave – and only then to resurrection and ascension and glory. And he calls Peter to follow.

Jesus calls Peter – and us – to give up living by our own rules, living alone with our desires and follies and dreams, into a fellowship of disciples, followers of the suffering Son of Man (who is also the Son of Glory), who shows us the way of discipleship, and its cost: The way of glory is not apart from suffering.

Peter is going to begin to discover what it means to live in faith: to share in the destiny and calling and work of the Son of Man, and to begin to take his place in the kingdom of the Promise.

What will that Godly kingdom look like? How will people treat each other there? How do we get started?

Paul lays it out for us – we are redeemed sinners, living by the grace of Christ in the Spirit. We are a community of faith united by the mercy of God. We receive encouragement in the life of the Spirit, and gracious instruction:

• Let love be without any pretence. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good.

• In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself.

• In the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit.

• Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly; share with any of God's holy people who are in need; look for opportunities to be hospitable.

• Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them.

• Rejoice with others when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow.

• Give the same consideration to all others alike. Pay no regard to social standing, but meet humble people on their own terms. Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom.

• Never pay back evil with evil, but bear in mind the ideals that all regard with respect.

• As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone.

• Never try to get revenge: leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As scripture says: Vengeance is mine -- I will pay them back, the Lord promises.

• And more: If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. By this, you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head.

• Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good.

(New Jerusalem Bible)

As Moses encounters him on the mountain, God has heard the cry of his people, and there on that holy ground he responds to his people’s cry, calling and preparing and sending forth his messenger.

As with Moses, God calls us – all of us, each of us – into the godly work of leading the way for his people into freedom. By the light, the same light of the burning bush, of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, he reveals himself to us. And he will lead us, on the way of the pilgrim, the way of the disciple, the way of the people of God, into the land of promise, of just & peaceful life.

So then, we have the message of grace, and the task before us, and we have the promise of the living God, who assures us that he will keep faith with us, as we move forward in a hope founded on the life of Christ, to proclaim the good news, and to live into God’s holy reign of righteousness and of peace.

Therefore—

Let us hold fast in the hope we proclaim, for he who has promised is faithful.

(Hebrews 10:23)


Pentecost 16, Proper 17, Year A
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

JRL



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2 Summer Photo Albums

I’m finally getting around to posting some summer photos.

HERE is an album from our week-long pirate themed summer program at Trinity Cathedral that culminated with a pirate communion service (in pirate language of course.)

HERE is an album from my week with 4th through 9th graders at our diocesan camp at Tahoe.

even the dogs

have a look at the short story, "The Great Piano Player", by Tom Gordon, hospice chaplain of the Marie Curie Centre in Edinburgh, in the June/July 2008 issue of Coracle, the magazine of the Iona Community,

http://www.iona.org.uk/

and then have a look at Henry Ossawa Tanner's double portrait, The Banjo Lesson,

http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/s06/dooreyc/Images/the%20banjo%20lesson.jpg



and then have a look at the gospel for this Sunday (Matthew 15:21-28)


and then ask,

where is Jesus in the story of the great piano player? is he the mother? the daughter? the old lady? the admiring audience?

and where are you?

and,

where is Jesus in the painting? the child? the old man?

and where are you?


and where is God in the story of the woman who implored Jesus to heal her daughter of a demon?

is he
is he not
standing behind Jesus
with his arms around him

is she not
standing behind Jesus
with her arms around him
teaching him
to play?


and where is Jesus now?

is he not standing behind you
arms around you
his hands guiding your hands
teaching you to play?

and where is the Spirit?

is she not
close by you
closer than your own breath
breathing into you
the joy of music?

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Camp Noel Porter and Lambeth

Here's what i wrote for our church newsletter:

On July 27 I went to Camp Noel Porter to serve as the chaplain for a week of camp with 4th through 9th graders. The camp relies on volunteer priests to provide the religious services and education. Each day I was responsible for a communion service with a sermon as well as an hour of religious programming. It had been quite some time since I had worked so closely with children. Prior to seminary I was a lay youth leader for four years and for my first job after seminary I was a chaplain at an Episcopal elementary school. But that was 15 years ago.

It was more work than I had anticipated, but it was also fun, and grounding. Canon Britt Olson came to work with the children one day and as she said, it is a treat to step away from big issues and big questions and get to focus on articulating God’s love to children. We used clips from the first three Star Wars movies (episodes IV-VI) as a springboard for discussing spiritual topics. I had forgotten what good movies they are. In the end, Darth Vader is saved by his son Luke Skywalker because Luke was willing to believe that there was still some good in his father. The end reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and weeds, and the fact that we are all a combination of wheat and weeds. The challenge when looking at others and ourselves is to see the wheat through the weeds. Such gracious vision can save somebody. Our concluding scripture refrain came from Paul’s letter to the Romans, “Don’t be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” This seemed to be a fitting tag line for the Star Wars saga.

I was aware that while I was singing camp songs and talking with children, the Anglican bishops were having their own “camp” experience. The Lambeth Conference has now concluded. It was mostly a time for bishops to talk, study and pray together. They did not pass any resolutions but rather enhanced their relationships so they can continue to work through the challenges that face the global communion. From the reports I’ve read there is a deep respect among the bishops and perhaps it will be harder for some to characterize others as being completely misguided weeds. While I’m sure Lambeth was vastly different from Camp Noel Porter, I think in both places the Kingdom of Heaven may have drawn closer.

Blessings,
Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/

Prayer for the Church - A Revision

During the past few weeks, we were asked to pray this prayer as we remembered the Bishops meeting for the Lambeth Conference:

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

After hearing the prayer in church, Bud Swank, one of the members of Trinity Cathedral sent me this reflection:

Today I found myself meditating on the Prayer for Lambeth Conference. It
seems to me that we are, in part, praying for something that we ought not to
expect or even desire.

"...carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation...."

I understand the plan of salvation to be transformational and
revolutionary in nature. The old is made new. Individuals may become something
that their friends hardly even recognize, and with whom those old friends may no
longer care to associate. Institutions have boxes blown up, customs set aside,
and new leaders put in place. These are not things that ordinarily happen in
tranquility, but by radical commitment to doing things that have never been
thought nor done before. Individuals commonly pass through a period of turmoil
as part of moving from the old to the new, and so do institutions. Conflict is a
necessary part of the process, as that is the only way that we can be motivated
to make the transition from what we know to what we do not know. It was what was
experienced by those around Jesus, and is what I expect to see today as God's
plan of salvation is carried out.

Therefore I offer this alternative prayer:
"...may your plan of salvation redeem the ferment of our times and transform it into new life and holy vitality...."

Bud is right of course. Change, which is a necessary element of life, is messy. And not necessarily tranquil. Tranqility can be an idol that leads to death.

Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/