New Cross Talk Blog

I've created a new CrossTalk blog. You can find it at http://trinitycathedralsacramento.wordpress.com/.

This is a WordPress blog which will give us more flexibility. One of the features is that posts are sorted by category (listed on the right) so you can go directly to a category of interest. This will be more helpful as we fill the blog out with more content.

Brian

on the eve of thanksgiving

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

The people God led through the desert,
the people who in darkness were shown a great light,
the people whom the Lord redeemed and called forth from bondage,
not once but again and again:
we are those people.

The people who call others forth out of bondage,
out of darkness into light,
out of poverty into abundance,
out of grief into joy,
out of despair into hope,
out of death into life:
we are those people.

The people God showered with manna,
bread in the wilderness,
bread for the journey,
the people God gave an abundant land,
an abundant life,
and a spirit of thankfulness:
we are those people.

Fisher- men and women by the lakeshore,
gathering in and mending our nets;
Seated by the tax-tables;
Thirsting by a well;
Stumbling blindly along a road;
or carrying a cross:
we are those people too.

God’s abundance is not the surfeit of this world’s pleasures,
not the largest or loudest or tallest or richest,
but the wealthiest in other ways:
in the redeeming hand when all is lost,
the recovered sight when all is blind,
the touch of kindness when all is cold.




We are the people of
forgiveness,
acceptance,
love,
grace,
providence,
blessing.
We are the people who experience God as creator, savior, sustainer;
who experience God as JOY.

All this summer and into the fall we’ve heard the story of Moses,
from the bulrushes to a glance across the mountains,
a glimpse of the promised land.
And this unlikely child would lead them,
the people of God,
from bondage to freedom,
from sufferance of Pharaoh to open hand of God—
and he would teach them the ways of God,
as surely as he taught them the ways of the desert.

Seek God’s reign first— put things in their right order of priority—
and live in accordance with the covenant God has made with you.

Do not forget— we did not earn this blessing, this abundance—
he gave it to you, as a loving parent cares for her child.

Remember, and be glad, and thank God.

Throughout the stories of Jesus, he is leading the people on the way—
picking up like Joshua where Moses left off—
guiding the people to the land of promise.

Who better than the Child of Promise to do this for us?
Who better than God’s Son to lead us to his Father’s house?
Who better than God’s revelation to show the way to us?
Who better than the bringer of life, to be our fount of blessing?

Blessed one, bless us,
in the breaking of the Bread,
remind us who you are—
Bread of Life,
and remind us who we are—
those who do not live by manna alone,
not even in the wilderness of wandering souls,
but by the WORD that proceeds from God’s mouth.



He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

—W. H. Auden, From the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio, (October 1941-July 1942).



We are the people
who seek God the Father.

We are the people
who know God in Christ.

We are the people
who live in God the Spirit.


A Litany of Thanksgiving


Let us give thanks to God for all the gifts so freely bestowed upon us.
For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky and sea.
For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women,
revealing the image of Christ,
For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and our friends,
For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve,
For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
For the brave and courageous,
who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity,
For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
Above all, for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and
the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

Drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.


Thanksgiving Eve 2008

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After Christmas...

After Christmas…


After Christmas… we put the presents away, recycle the wrappings, and store the boxes in the attic or garage.

After Christmas… the child Jesus grows up.

After Christmas… we try to get our minds around the mystery. Who is this child?

After Christmas… we wonder what will change. What will we do differently? What will we see differently?

After Christmas…

Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even;

Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath'ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me;
If thou know’st, telling—
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”

“Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine!
Bring me pine logs hither!
Thou and I will see him dine,
When we bear him thither."

The saint in the carol sees a way to serve Christ through the poor – and acts on it. He and his page go out into the snow to invite the man to dine.

In “The Rebel Jesus” (The Bells of Dublin, with The Chieftains) Jackson Browne sings of the irony of warm feasting indoors while the poor starve in the cold:

…And once a year when Christmas comes,
We give to our relations,
And perhaps we give a little to the poor,
If the generosity should seize us,
But if any one of us should interfere,
In the business of why they are poor,
They get the same as the rebel Jesus.


After Christmas… will we see differently? Will we act differently? Will we walk out into the cold in the footsteps of Wenceslas to seek out the poor? Will we speak out on the causes of poverty? Will we be working to transform the world into the image of Christ’s kingdom – a kingdom of peace and not of poverty, of abundance and not of scarcity; a kingdom turned not inward in self-preservation but outward in charity?

Page and monarch forth they went,
Forth they went together,
Through the rude wind's wild lament,
And the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer.”

"Mark my footsteps, good my page,
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage,
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

--J. M. Neale (1818-1866), The New Oxford Book of Carols, Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott, eds., (Oxford, 1992) #97.

A Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of all people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world; so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

***

The English word GOSPEL (Anglo-Saxon, godspell, ‘God-story’) is used to translate the Greek euangelion, ‘good tidings’. [Alan Richardson, A Theological Word Book of the Bible (Macmillan, 1950) 100]

As Christ’s hands and voice in the world we strive to proclaim the good tidings of Jesus in our words and embody his gospel in our deeds.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18)

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Preaching ths Sunday: The Final Judgement

I am preaching this Sunday. The gospel reading (printed below) is Matthew 25:31-46. It is a great reading. In it, Jesus uses an image that was common in his day of final judgment. The picture of the king separating the sheep from the goats was not new or newsworthy. It was rather the criteria for judgment. Two things are noteworthy. First, it is not observance of the Torah or Temple worship, or even membership in a chosen group that is the criteria for judgment. Rather, have you fed the hungry, clothed the naked, etc.

There is another aspect that is more subtle. It has to do with a lack of calculation, a lack of judgment, if you will, on the part of the sheep. They feed the hungry, simply because they are hungry. I believe the sheep in the parable serve those around them as a way of life. Whereas the goats in the parable withhold service because of who it is that is hungry. If they had known it was the king that was in need, why certainly they would have fed him. "When did we see you hungry," they ask the king.

For the sheep, there is no distinction. I believe the deeper meaning of this parable is connected to this looking at others without making distinctions of who should be loved and who shouldn't.
Here's the text:

Matthew 25:31-46
31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

37Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.”

41Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in
prison and you did not visit me.”

44Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

Anglican Monastery Destroyed

A stunningly beautiful Episcopal Monastery that was home for seven monks and a spiritual retreat to many visitors and pilgrims was destroyed in the fires in Southern California. Please keep them, and all the victims of the fires, in your prayers. This is from a recent New York Times article:

Early last Friday, fire consumed most of the complex where the monks had chanted, studied the stars and welcomed guests from around the world. The next afternoon, they returned to survey the damage.

“We were very quiet,” Brother Joseph Brown recalled in a telephone interview Tuesday. “We just looked around. We were in shock.”

By the time the Tea Fire, in Santa Barbara County, was under control, all that remained of the 60-year-old monastery itself were a skeletal archway, a charred iron cross and a large Angelus bell.

Two small artist’s studios near the main building were intact. An icon of Christ that Brother Brown had been painting with pigments made from egg yolk and mineral powder was still on a desk. A cello sat a few feet away, unharmed. In the chaos of wind and fire, a sheriff’s deputy had moved another monk’s telescope outside, where it remained unscathed.

“In the midst of all this destruction,” Brother Brown, 46, said Tuesday, “miracles happened all over the place.”

“The feelings right now are difficult to describe,” he said. “One of the hazards of monasticism throughout the centuries is we become attached to what we have or where we are. This is simply a reminder that what we are called to is not our stuff. This is a cleansing by fire.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Diocesan Convention 2008

This past weekend I and other members of the Cathedral were in Redding for the annual convention of the Diocese of Northern California. I only took pictures at the end when we were having our closing Eucharist. The teenagers were having a parallel event (fun not business.) They joined us for this last service. I sat with them. Here are a few our my pictures.

YOU can make a big difference

From parishoner Virginia McNeely:

Did you know that with minimal effort you can help scores of individuals and numerous groups in our community?

We all belong to a number of formal and informal groups and clubs: gyms, book clubs, hiking groups, professional and social clubs, school groups, etc. Each of these groups has the potential to help others in the community, but they need someone to help them to see how. YOU can be that person!

For example, I am a member of Curves and of WeightWatchers, where I’ve shared news about the ministry of Trinity Cathedral with Jedediah Smith School’s BackSnack program. I had encouraged WeightWatchers members to give me their “target foods” (foods that are too tempting) when they cleaned their cupboards, so the leaders at Sierra 2 chose our BackSnack program to benefit from the drive where members gave one pound of food for each pound they lost. Having heard me talk about Jed Smith School, my Curves location owner has had peanut butter drives and has also donated backpacks and clothing for the program. With truly minimal effort on my part, more than 200 pounds of food has gone to help the kids at Jed Smith School. In addition, people have heard about what great work Trinity does and know that this is a caring congregation that they might consider joining.

Take a few minutes to brainstorm what activities and groups you’re involved with. Art? Bread of Life can use art supplies for their community program. Hiking, hunting, fishing? Collect jackets and sleeping bags for the homeless at Loaves and Fishes when your friends upgrade. Reading? The choir is having a book drive; the BackSnack project can use children’s books; the Friends of the Library are always collecting books to raise funds. Scouts or a social or work group? Collect food for River City Community Services by asking participants to bring canned goods to meetings or social events.

As baptized Christians we all show thanks for how good God has been to us by giving of our time, talent and treasure. Think of how you can help others to focus their giving and join you in your ministries. With a little effort you can make a big difference!

Election at Trinity

Election day was very exciting for us at Trinity Cathedral. As a polling place we had a steady stream of folks passing through. Regardless of political persuasion, people seemed upbeat and eager to participate in our democratic process. The election night dinner was great. We had folks who voted earlier in the day who came back for dinner. I had conversations with a lot of people who were grateful for our hospitality. I feel like we are becoming a better known, positive influence in our neighborhood. It has been a great week to be a member of Trinity Cathedral.

Bishop Beisner's comments after the election

Dear Friends in Christ:

At last, it is over. I can hardly remember what life was like before this recent presidential election campaign. It seemed as if it had been going on forever, and would never end. But it has ended, and the ending is truly historic. Tuesday night, with its multiple media announcements of a decision, moving speeches by each of the two candidates, and televised scenes of great celebration, has already taken its place in our memories as another of those “Where were you when...?” moments.

As usual, the people of our Diocese covered the entire spectrum in their electoral choices. We are at one and the same time very Red and very Blue. I hope that every one of us feels that we have been good Christian stewards and voted well on all that was before us on our ballots. I say that not with regard to the color-coding of the actual choices we made, but in reference to our voting in an informed and prayerful manner, with Christ’s Kingdom in view. God acts in human history to accomplish God’s mission. Did we help or hinder that movement? We are accountable to God for our use of the gift of our citizenship.

Pastorally, this will be a time for us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep over the various outcomes of the election. With regard to Proposition 8, I was clear with you where I stood and why, and so it won’t surprise you that I am very saddened by its passage. Whatever your own decision with regard to that particular ballot measure, I ask that we all be especially mindful of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, who have just experienced a deeply hurtful loss. This is a time to show true compassion.

Finally: the politicians are fond of saying it as a way of signing off; for Christians, it should always be nothing less than an earnest prayer: God bless America. With it should also come the admonition: Bless God, America.

In Christ,

+Barry

Election Dinner

Prior to moving to California, I lived in Idaho. Idaho is very different from California in many ways. It is a state that is mostly public lands. The population of the entire state is about 1 1/2 million, which is about the same as the population of Sacramento County. It is also a state that is, for the most, part politically monochromatic. Almost all elected officials are from the Republican party and the state always votes for the Republican presidential candidate. Idaho has never been a political battleground. Which means the political parties really did not have to pay any attention to Idaho. Prior to my 12 years in Idaho, I lived 8 years in Hawaii, which was a monochromatically Democratic state. Consequently, for almost all of my adult life, I've lived in states that campaigns did not care about. Which means, prior to moving to California, I saw very, very few political advertisements. I remember watching the news and wishing I could see the ads that everybody was talking about.

Boy has that changed! Now I'm pretty tired of the political divisiveness and rancor. I wonder what damage we are doing to ourselves by this constant negativity. As a congregation we do not have to give into the voices of fear and judgementalism. We can be a different kind of community. We can model grace even when we disagree politically.

And we can do this is a concrete way this Tuesday. Because we are a polling place, many of our neighbors come here to vote. We will be offering them free dinner from 5pm to 8pm. This is an important and rare opportunity for us to model grace and hospitality at a time when poeple will be anxious and excited about the election. I hope you can help with this event. Volunteers are welcome to help from 1pm until about 9pm. I hope to see you there!
Blessings,
Brian Baker

Political Divisiveness - At what cost?

A couple of weeks ago I was moved by an article written by The Rev. Sara Miles from St. Gregory of Nyssa Church in San Francisco. She was reflecting on the culture of this election season. She wrote:

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of time, energy, and money going into stirring up passions around this election. You’ve read the attacks on Barack Obama and his supporters, on Sarah Palin and John McCain. You’ve received or sent angry, rumor-filled emails. You’ve heard or told snarky, hostile jokes about the evils of the other side–whoever “the other side” is for you. You’ve sat there fuming reading the news or watching TV, and you may even have despaired about the general level of dishonesty, vitriol and division generated by campaigns and their supporters.

I want to ask you to pause and consider how our words and actions during this campaign are going to play out in the years to come. Anger– especially anger that feels “righteous,” when we’re raging against injustice and the bad guys– is addictive. It’s hard to let go of. As someone who’s lived in wars, during bitter political struggles, and also in post-conflict societies, I can tell you that anger flung around recklessly during a conflict poisons the water of civil society for a long time. And I see how carrying around rage and resentment hurts individuals personally. And as someone who considers herself a part of what we call the Body of Christ, I can tell you that it’s impossible to hate a part of that Body without damaging the whole.

So I want to ask you, first, to take a deep breath and pray for your enemies.

So much of the political discourse appeals to our lower selves. The flames of fear and judgment are fanned in order to motivate us to vote against the evil “other.” This divisive judgementalism is sinful and harms us socially and spiritually. I believe the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. We will never see it, however, if we keep focusing on how evil the “other” is.

There is nothing wrong with being politically active. In fact I think we have a responsibility to take an active role in our civic life. But our civil action needs to be civil. I believe as disciples of Jesus, we need to affirm the good in our communities, and to work together, despite partisan differences, toward positive change.

Saturday Service Photos

We’ve started a new service on Saturdays at 5:10pm. It is a great, simple, casual and reverent service. Here are some pictures.

love is all you need

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength, and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14-15)

It has been a long, long green season. Early on, we heard the story of Moses found in the bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter - and how he was nursed by his birth mother, adopted by the princess, ran with the princes, then ran away a fugitive from justice (he'd killed a man, an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew slave) into the camp of Jethro, whose daughter he married and whose sheep he herded.

So there he was in the middle of the desert, herding sheep. He learned all the ways of the desert - and all the waterholes. Whatever for? What could God possibly have in mind?

Moses found himself in the midst of an outrageous training program -- and he must have wondered: "If this is the training program, God, what is the job?"

You couldn't blame him for asking. God however kept his peace, and revealed his purpose slowly. You, he said to Moses through the burning bush, are to lead your people out of slavery to freedom. You are to guide them through the desert (remember where all those watering holes are?) and lead them to the land of promise. As you travel you are to teach them the way - not just the ways of the desert but the way of God.

I will give you my word - I will give you my promise - and I will give you my Law.

Moses was alone on the mountain, Nebo or Pisgah, at the end of his life. He had climbed to a high place, and he could see all around. He could see as in a vision the Promised Land laid out before him.

It was like the view the Joad family had, in "The Grapes of Wrath", as they came over Tehachapi Pass and caught sight of the Great Central Valley of California, like a garden without walls. It was like that view for me - coming over that same pass, seeing the first green grass I'd seen for many months and two thousand miles.

For the people of Israel, it meant coming home at last to a place they had never known.

Moses had led them to this point; now God let him see the land with his own eyes.

God leads him up a mountain and shows him the view. Behind him, in the past, are the concerns for the freedom of his people, their physical safety - under threat from the overwhelming force of their declared enemies, from their hunger and thirst, from their foolish idol worship.

Moses looks out across the land. He stands there, a leader facing the future - knowing it is out there - yet dragging along the baggage of the past.

The future is so close now that he can almost taste it - and yet three problems remain: gossip, nostalgia, and, in another way, succession.

For all the time he has led them there has been murmuring - gossip - perhaps out of fear of the unknown, perhaps idle speculation, perhaps discontent with their dependency on God.

There has been a hearkening back to a past viewed in hindsight through rose-colored glasses.

And there is the challenge of bringing forth a new generation of leadership for the future.

Yes, Moses had had his hands full.

As he looks over the fair prospect of the Promised Land, he knows that his work is done-but that the work of the people goes on.

He has been their lawgiver, teacher, advocate, and guide. He has been their shepherd in the wilderness. He has seen to their needs. He has brought down to them the law - after speaking with God face to face, without a mediator. He has promised them a future with hope. And he has delivered on that promise. Now it is time for a new leader to step up.

Cheerfully obedient to the last, Moses accepts a peaceful end as a gift from the Lord, at this last place in the desert. He has reached the ideal age - 120 - and his strength is unimpaired. He goes silently to his end, alone with God on the mountain; there is no shrine to visit. His legacy is the Torah, the word of God, and the freedom of his people.

The Torah, the Law of Moses, can be summed up in two great commandments.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

All 613 commandments in the Torah come to their completion in these two deceptively simple statements. If you love and show the love of God in the world, you have gone beyond the letter to the spirit of the laws.

Augustine, a bishop in North Africa when Rome was falling, had a bit of advice about the two great commandments.

He summed up all of our duty to God and each other in one phrase:

Love - and do as you please.

Love - and do as you please.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Love - and do as you please.

Wait a minute. Sounds like a Catch-22 doesn't it?

If you love, what will it please you to do? What is the loving thing?

And where did all this love stuff come from, by the way?

Well, it came from the top, and it came from the start.

In the beginning there was LOVE.

Love was with God and love was God - nothing came into being that did not come into being without LOVE.

For LOVE is the essence of the Torah - the Law given to Moses, the Word of God given to the prophets - and it is embodied in the words and acts and life and being of Jesus.

Jesus is love incarnate - and this love is the love of God. This love is the light of all humankind. It shines in the darkness of the world. And hate has never overcome it.

Love - and do as you please.

How do you love? Micah the prophet put it in three phrases: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. (Micah 6:8)

The Torah put it in two: Love God - and show that love in love for your neighbor. But where did this love stuff come from? From God: who loved us first.

Jesus is "the embodiment of the love the law requires" (Herb O'Driscoll).

Jesus is the Torah come alive, the living expression of God's will for his people.

And that Law is love.

Not from compulsion but out of love, the love that came first from God, are we to fulfill all the law and the prophets. And we do so in the name of Jesus, the epitome of love.

In the beginning there was love...

True holiness, obedience to God, is a response in love to the call to holiness, to right living, that is expressed in the two great commandments, the summary of the Law:

Love God with all your being; show that love in love for others.

Cheerful obedience to God's commandments - bearing the fruit of faith, hope and charity in the lives of believers - is a manifestation of the love of the God who loves you first and best: love God, love your neighbor.

In his obedient response to the will of God, Jesus fulfills the two great commandments - the greatest commandment, the Love of God before all else, and the second, to love thy neighbor.

In his brief encounter with the Pharisees, who asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus shows Messiah is more that Son of David, true king of Israel: he is David's master, David's lord, the son of God. And he has come, to set his people free.

The commandments Jesus cites in answer to the lawyer's question of which is #1, are parts not of action only or bare compliance, but are part of prayer - and of a life of holiness, a life lived in the knowledge of the love of God. They are part of the fabric of being, from day one and every day of our lives. And they speak to a renewal of the heart.

What are we called to this week, as God's people, in our prayers and in our daily actions?

Sounds like a tough challenge. But the answer is really very simple:

Love - and do as you please.

May the Love of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds, your souls and your selves,
at work or at rest, gathered or scattered,
obedient, joyous, and alive
with the good news of Jesus Christ - and of the God who always loved you first and best. Amen.

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."-Rabindranath Tagore

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"...or was it a croissant?"

ANAMNESIS: An act of remembering that brings the past into the present; that brings the present and events of the past into conjunction, aligning them in unity.

NOSTALGIA: An act of the memory serves as an escape from present realities and anticipations of the future into a past colored with yearning.

Geoffrey Cuming taught our seminary class in liturgics just two new words: anamnesis and epiclesis. This month, I thought I’d tell you about the first.

As we use it in understanding liturgy, anamnesis is the recollection of past events, chiefly in the obedient response to the Lord’s command, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

When he instituted the Eucharist, Jesus led his friends in the symbolic acts that accompany the Passover meal. He reminded them of their heritage. He led them through the events of the Exodus, from the prophecies and the plagues, to the rescue from captivity and the parting of the waters, through the wanderings in the desert and the provision of bread from above.

Most of all, he reminded them of that last supper the people had eaten the night before they were free. And then, he took the bread in his own hands, and said the blessing, as the people of Israel had blessed it for a thousand years: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”

And he broke it, and gave it to his friends. And he took the cup of wine, recalling those ancient days, and with it in his hands he made an offering of prayer and thanksgiving: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.”

All this he did – in accordance with the Law – but he added something that showed Grace in that moment: he said, “Whenever you do this, do it in remembrance of me.” Do it, then, to bring back this moment.

Make it present in your hearts. Remember when Jesus offered himself as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Remember him as the one who leads us forth from the captivity of our own self-centeredness, the lower nature with its egotistical, passion-driven desires, into the freedom of reliance on the providence of God and trust in God’s eternal abundance.

I’m not sure it’s necessary to give much space here to defining nostalgia – that mixture of glad and sad longings that accompany recalling something long ago and far away – and we all know its effects.

If we try to recover a past experience for refuge from the present, or in worried retreat from the challenges of the future, if we try to recreate a feeling or mood to indulge in, we know it is at best a temporary patch on the fabric of time. It will tear away. We do not want to go with it when it goes.

We want to move forward, bravely and boldly, holding on to the promises of God, in the light of the world that dawns in Christ, because however dark the night, as children of the day we know that joy comes in the morning.


Joy opens the heart. –Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.

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Scary Fincial Times

Written for Trinity's October 2008 Newsletter by Brian Baker

We are living in scary financial times. Banks have failed. Credit is getting harder to get. Our lawmakers are scrambling to shore up our nation’s financial system. While I know the crisis has complex causes, I have been considering our own culpability for the problem we are in. I feel like we, as a nation, have been on a massive consumerist binge. Housing values/prices have doubled and tripled, thus increasing the “wealth” of homeowners. While home prices tripled, salaries did not Folks bought homes they couldn’t really afford because credit was made readily available. We all wanted a piece of the crazy real estate market. Stores regularly offered deals where you could buy expensive toys without paying a penny for years. So we bought, and bought and bought.

To what end. Were we happier? Perhaps for a brief time. But the joy of shopping doesn’t last. The new item quickly becomes old, and in need of an upgrade.

Is our current economic crisis a problem that needs to be fixed so we can get back to life as it was before? Or is it an invitation to change the way we have been living?

I believe it is the latter. I believe we are being invited to live a simpler life. We can’t keep filling our lives with new stuff. The stuff never satisfied us in the first place. That’s why we wanted more. Why don’t we stop our consumerist binging and learn to become a loving, caring community with what we have. I don’t believe we need anything more to experience the Kingdom of Heaven. My most fulfilling moments come when I am serving or working with others to help make the world, or the life of an individual, better.

I am not wondering how this crisis will end. I know things will settle down. I am wondering whether or not we will allow this situation to be our teacher. Will we learn to live life differently?
I am so grateful to be a part of a congregation that is focused on experiencing God’s Kingdom right now and generously sharing God’s love with others.

rebuild my church

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

When knighthood was in flower, when Richard the Lionhearted was triumphing at the Battle of Acre, and all young manhood yearned to be on Crusade, among them was a young man in central Italy, in the proud town of Assisi. His father was a wealthy merchant, a dealer in French fabrics, and his son was his best sales representative.

In fact he’d nicknamed the boy ‘the little Frenchman’ shortly after his birth. And that is how he is known to history, not as Giovanni Bernardone, but as Frankie – Francis of Assisi.

As a young man Francis longed to be a hero of romance and a singer of romances: a troubadour as well as a crusader.

He was popular with the other young men – he had the best clothes, and he fixed them up at a reasonable rate. The young nobles of the town formed his entourage. As I said, he was a good salesman – and his father’s clothes shop prospered as Francis’ friends followed his style.

So when Francis wanted to accompany the knights marching through Italy to embark on crusade, his father paid for his suit of armor. And Francis started out – but something turned him back, not long after he generously gave his armor to a poor knight who had none.

Later he was a prisoner of war in the town across the valley, for some months, as his townspeople waged war on theirs. He was in a low dungeon. It was not to be his last.

For one day, in a exuberant gesture, Francis – having visited a poor church – loaded a horse with cloth from his father’s storehouse, rode to the next town, sold both horse and cargo, and returned with the cash to offer to the priest.

The priest thought something funny was going on, and refused the gift – so Francis cast the money, no more use to him, into the corner near the altar.

His father came looking for him. He hid out in the church basement for some weeks, a virtual prisoner. Then his father had him dragged out and hauled in front of the bishop, in the town square. There in front of God and everybody his father demanded he return ‘everything you have had from me.’

Francis complied – he removed all his clothes, and placed them at his father’s feet. The bishop threw his cloak around the young man.

Francis later scrounged up a castoff garment from the under-gardener, and sketched a cross on it with a piece of chalk. He wore it proudly. He was beginning to understand there was another way to take up the cross than to be a crusading knight in armor.

He began to take up his cross and follow Christ. He took his place in the true crusade, the struggle within human souls to cast off sinfulness and embrace the life of grace.

It was soon after that Francis found himself praying at a small decrepit church – long deferred maintenance had turned it into a virtual ruin. But it still had an altar, and above the altar an icon of the crucified Christ. He stared at the icon and the open eyes of Christ looked back. He heard the call:

Rebuild my church, which as you see is falling down.

Rebuild my church.

He began with his own bare hands, there and then. He began quite literally to rebuild that little church. Day by day, stone by stone, they built it slow and surely.

And slowly and surely the church began to be recover, and to be reborn into new life – and soon companions came to share in the work. They rebuilt that little church. And soon, they had rebuilt two more.

It was just the beginning. For the days of the crusaders had left the church in a sorry state – and Francis and his companions, in their own simple way, began to follow the gospel as their rule of life.

And their lives, and the life of the church, began to be reborn, remade through the work of human hands and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some years ago a pastor named Robert Munger wrote out a message, entitled, “My Heart, Christ’s Home”. (http://www3.calvarychapel.com/bellmawr/myheart.html)

In it he compared the chambers of the heart, the mansions of the soul, to the rooms of a house. He described how a person might invite Jesus into their heart, only to discover gradually that there is more and more work there for Christ to do, to turn their heart into a true home for the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

As we open the door to Jesus to come into each area of our life, he is able to rebuild each of us as the temple of God we are called to be.

There are many rooms in a Christian’s soul – the room of intellect, the room of emotion, the room of personal morality, the room of social responsibility, the room where we pray, the room where we give of ourselves to others, the room where the stranger is welcome. In each of them Christ has work to do, to transform our lives.

Another pastor, John Landgraff, talked about the work of personal transformation, and how we can begin, in a small way or more ambitiously, doing over one room – or the whole house. As Christ begins to go to work in us, making his home in our hearts, the whole house begins to take on new life and new purpose.

This is reflected in the promises we have made, or had made for us, at baptism:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

I will, with God’s help.

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

I will, with God’s help.

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

I will, with God’s help.

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

I will, with God’s help.

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

I will, with God’s help.

In each of these vows you can see evidence of a building project going on, in the life of the Christian.

There is another building project going on – beyond the work of God in the individual there is the work of the Spirit in the Church, rebuilding it anew in every generation.

In his generation Francis heard the call: Rebuild my church. We are each called to take part in our generation in the work of the building and rebuilding of the Church.

We are to work alongside the master builder – and like those who have gone before us, Francis of Assisi and all the others through the ages – we have work to do.

Rebuild my church.

The call goes out to every new generation of believers. We are his people and our hands do his work in the world.

Rebuild my church.

There are many rooms in the household of God, the house of prayer for all people. They are not all visible to us – but we can see some of them. There is room for education of the young, there is room for music and worship, and there is room for fellowship and celebration.

However you are called to serve, whatever place you are to take in the work of the people, you are called, as one of the people of God, to be transformed - to become one of the living stones built into the temple of his Glory.

At the altar you have a chance to renew your own intention to follow the call of Christ, in your own vocation as a person of God, called here and now as a part of the church, to accept the transforming presence of God in your life, and to invite Christ anew into your life to do the continuing work of rebuilding your heart as the dwelling-place of the Spirit of God.

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, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


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Jed Smith Back To School Night

Last Wednesday night I got to participate in a remarkable event. Our congregation partners with Jed Smith Elementary School, a school located in housing projects in which ever student is enrolled in the school lunch program. For quite some time we had been supporting classroom teachers by compiling student materials at the beginning of the year, adopting classroom teachers and giving them little gifts and encouragement, providing every child with small gifts at Christmas, etc. More recently we have established a program where we send children home on Fridays with backpacks of food for them and their families. We started this when we found out that children were being adequately fed at school during the week but were going hungry over the weekends. We also started a free clothes closet at the school.

Last Wednesday night we did something new, and equally exciting. The remarkable, high-energy principal, Fay Sharpe, has been working hard to connect the life of the school with the neighborhood. (Every student lives within a few blocks of the school.) One of the key opportunities to foster this connection is Back To School Night, which is an open house at the beginning of the year that usually runs from 5-6pm.. Last Thursday, for Back to School Night, members of Trinity cooked dinner for everybody who came. They made over 20 gallons of delicious, meaty spaghetti sauce to serve with the spaghetti as well as salad, garlic bread and ice cream. We also had the clothes closest open. Usually the children are the only ones who go to the clothes closet because we open it on Friday’s when school is letting out. But this time, entire families could go. We also had a health fair with lots of health information and nurses on site to answer questions, take blood pressure of offer other services. We had a sign up for a parent’s group.

It was a breathtaking success. Fay said attendance was more than double the attendance in previous years. As an example she said in a class of 20 students, 18 students had their parent(s) come. The energy at the school was lovely. The clothes closet was crazy – good crazy. Lots of health material got picket up and the nurses spoke with many young women about women’s health.

I remember my former bishop in Idaho, Bishop Bainbridge, challenging congregations to make such a difference in their communities that if the church would disappear, the community would lament. I feel like Trinity Cathedral is starting to make that kind of difference.

Six parents signed up for a new parent's support group.

Talk Like a Pirate Church

Avast maties! Trinity Cathedral will be honoring International Talk Like A Pirate Day with a Pirate Church Service on September 19 at 5:30p.m. The entire service will use pirate-ese and costumes are welcome. To learn more about this fun day, visit www.talklikeapirate.com

Buddhist - Christian Meditation

Last night my Tibetan Buddhist friend, Mercedes Bahleda, who was visiting from her Buddhist community in Arizona, led us in a Christian-Buddhist meditation. We used an ancient Tibetan Buddhist form of guided meditation to invoke the presence of Jesus into our lives and our hearts. It was beautiful. I'm hoping to have audio of the meditation posted on my blog in the next few days.

We put this together rather quickly with little publicity. We were surprised when people kept showing up. We had over 30 people crammed in the church nursery. We were relegated to the nursery because of all the other thing going on in the Cathedral: we were hosting homeless families in our classrooms, the choir was in the cathedral, a political action group wanting to preserve the right for same-sex marriage in California was in a meeting room, a Buddhist sangha was meeting in our conference room, AA in another room. Amidst all that bustle, we managed to carve out an hour of contemplative time and space. It was absolutely lovely.

-Brian Baker

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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