Category: Prayer (Page 41 of 48)

A Sober Thanksgiving Reminder – From the Daily Office – November 22, 2012

November 22, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Letter of James:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – James 5:1-5 (NRSV) – November 22, 2012)

Thanksgiving Cornucopia It may be the United States’ holiday of Thanksgiving Day, but the Daily Office continues at this time of year delivering its message of repentance rather than encouraging thanksgiving. The Old Testament lesson is another from Malachi in which the Lord speaking to the priests says that he has spread dung on their faces and put them out of his presence! The gospel lesson from Luke has Jesus predicting the end of the world. And then there’s this epistle lesson which condemns the wealthy. Just not a lot of giving thanks!

On the other hand, Jame’s warning about the dangers of wealth is perhaps a fitting counterpoint to the day. During the past several days, the international news services to which I subscribe on the internet have shown pictures not seen on American television or in the US papers, pictures of dead Palestinian children stacked like so much cordwood in makeshift morgues, pictures of children in temporary hospitals missing legs and arms. My throat kept constricting and my tears kept flowing, and in the back of my mind I kept hearing a phrase my step-father often used – “And here we sit – fat, dumb, and happy.”

The President of Egypt and the American Secretary of State have, the news reports, brokered a ceasefire. It’s not peace, but at least the shelling and the missile launches have stopped. At least the 75,000 Israeli reservists activated by their government will not be leaving their families and marching into Gaza. For that we can and surely should be thankful.

I don’t mean to put a damper on the day, and the lectionary pointing us to James’s letter and the other lessons today is simply coincidence. But they are a reminder to pause in the midst of our family gatherings, to eschew being “fat, dumb, and happy,” and to think of things for which we should be truly thankful – love, peace, family, friends – not merely the stuff we possess – the riches, the clothes, the gold, the silver. A sober reminder to pause yet again and “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” (Ps. 122:6)

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Faith in the Face of Nothing – From the Daily Office – November 20, 2012

November 20, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Prophet Habakkuk:

Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
will exult in the God of my salvation.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NRSV) – November 20, 2012)

"Faith" Inscribed on a Granite Block Giving thanks at a time privation, that’s what these two verses from Habakkuk’s prophecy are about. Habakkuk describes a situation in which he (and all the people of Jerusalem) have lost everything. Just look at what he lists in verse 17: figs, grapes, and olives, the year-round fruit crops of the area; the fields, which is to say the annual crops, the grains and staple foods; flock and herd, which means sheep and cows. All their their produce is gone, all their livestock are dead.

This is a society utterly destroyed. Habakkuk’s situation is worse than anything we can imagine in our time and place. In Habakkuk’s time, there was no “safety net”, no social service agencies, no homeless shelters, no food stamps, no church food pantries, no well-off relatives (everyone is suffering the loss of the crops and livestock). For Habakkuk and his kindred, this all means starvation. It means death. None of us, I’m sure, has ever been in quite the situation Habakkuk experiences, though I do know that many have, for example, faced death their own possible in the form of cancer or of battlefield danger, and others have handled the death of loved ones.

Nonetheless, in face of the virtual certainty of destruction, Habakkuk can say, “I will rejoice in God; I will give thanks to my Lord.” It is easy to give thanks and rejoice when we have things; Habakkuk does so when he has nothing. I think we sometimes confuse thankfulness for the things we receive from God for faith in God God’s-self. Habakkuk has no things to be thankful for; it is in God’s self that Habakkuk rejoices. It is in God, not God’s gifts that Habakkuk trusts. This is more than gratitude for stuff. This is more than optimism and positive thinking. This is faith.
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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Vision and Salt – From the Daily Office – November 19, 2012

November 19, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Prophet Habakkuk:

The Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Habakkuk 2:2-3a (NRSV) – November 19, 2012)

Vision Road Sign There are two passages of Scripture that I always think of when vestries or other church governing boards begin to discuss a vision for the church’s mission and ministry. One is the King James version of Proverbs 29:18a – “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” – the other is this passage from Habakkuk. I really like the image of the vision being written so large that someone running by can read it and make sense of it; the church’s vision needs to be as big, expansive, and attention-getting as a billboard.

To catch a fish, one must cast one’s line into the water in a manner that will attract the fish. To lead and perform an effective ministry, the church and its leadership must cast a vision of the future far and wide – write it large – in such a way as to attract and retain members and co-ministers who will see that vision through, buy into it, act upon it, make it a reality. Vision casting in the church means discerning God’s purpose for the church or program and then making it known. Vision, as Habakkuk makes clear, must be presented in a way that motivates, inspires, and encourages; the people rushing by, running to and fro attending to the demands of daily life, need to catch the vision and really believe in it.

The process is not easy, but it is necessary. In the absence of vision, as the verse from Proverbs says, the people perish. The parish perishes. I’m reading a book about church administration in which the author makes the point that a congregation needs direction, a vibrant energetic center of action and service to give the congregation its particular and peculiar identity. Without that God’s people are, as God’s Son said, like salt that has lost its savor.

Write God’s vision as big as a billboard! Without it, the church will founder and die; without it, the church is good for nothing but trampling under foot like unusable salt.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

The Valley of Decision – From the Daily Office – November 17, 2012

November 17, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Joel:

Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Joel 3:14 – November 17, 2012)

Desert Hiking The “valley of decision” is probably another name for the Valley of Jehoshaphat referred to in an earlier verse of this chapter of the Prophet Joel. Jehoshaphat (a Hebrew name pronounced “yeh-hoh-shah-faht”) is a compound word of two other Hebrew terms, Yahweh (one of the names of God) and shaphat (meaning “to judge” or “to decide”). Jehoshaphat, therefore, means “God will judge” or “God will decide”. Geographically, the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, lies between the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.

It seems to me that the image, “the valley of decision,” makes a marvelous metaphor for the whole process of making judgments in life. We speak of “mountain-top experiences” to describe those “Aha! moments” when insight or revelation comes upon us suddenly; the metaphor of passing through a valley seems an apt image for the alternative of the mundane decision-making in which every person engages every day.

How do people make decisions? How do we sift through piles of information without being overwhelmed by the plethora of alternatives? What are the factors that lead us in a certain direction? As I pondered the image of the “valley of decision,” I recalled my college days when a weekend away with friends usually meant a back-packing foray into the Anza-Borrego Desert east of San Diego or the Agua Tibia Wilderness Area northeast of the city. Often these hiking excursions took us to places where few human beings had walked before; we had compasses and topological maps to guide us, but often there was no trail picked out by earlier hikers. We had to forge the trail ourselves. Often we found ourselves at the top of a hill overlooking a desert valley with no clear path. “How are we going to get down there?” was a frequent question.

Years after those college-day hikes, I went to graduate school and received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Nevada. Among the things we studied (and supposedly learned) were the steps of management decision-making. The decision-making process, we were taught, involves the following steps:

Define the problem.
Identify limiting factors.
Develop potential alternatives.
Analyze the alternatives.
Select the best alternative.
Implement the decision.
Establish a control and evaluation system.

Standing at the top of a hill in the middle of the desert carrying a 50-pound pack at the end of a day of hiking, one does not stop to engage in that formal a process! Making our way downhill into the valley did mean carefully considering the path not only as a way down, but also as a potential exit route since we had no idea what we might find below or on the other side. However, we had to get down the hill and did so by making small, individual choices as we took each step down into the valley.

When we make big decisions, we do not have infinite resources and we frequently do not have a lot of time to gather information and analyze data. Furthermore, we human beings are significantly limited in the amount of complexity with which we can cope. So even though we may try to make decisions on the basis of some formal, rational process, we often resort to simplifying assumptions; we accept that our information is limited; and we settle for a less-than-thorough analysis of available data. We constantly use simplifying and confidence-sustaining mental short cuts that psychologists call “heuristics”; these reduce the complexity of our decision making. They are like the small individual choices we hikers made step-by-step going down into those desert valleys.

When we reached the bottom of the hill, when we were down in the valley, we had answered the question, “How are we going to get down there?” We had entered into and reached the bottom of our “valley of decision,” made the decision, not in one grand effort of rational analysis and pre-planning following the logical steps of that graduate school management class, but simply by taking a series of small steps.

Life is like that. There are very few mountain-top “Aha!” experiences. There are a lot of valleys of decision and not a few steep hills of decision, as well. We go through life taking small steps down into valleys and up onto hills, reaching decisions we may not even realize we are making. Everybody does it! Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of decision every day.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Doubt and Double-Mindedness – From the Daily Office – November 15, 2012

November 15, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Letter of James:

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – James 1:5-8 – November 15, 2012)

Road Signs at the Crossroads of Faith and Doubt I suppose I take issue with Scripture more often than I should, but this is one of those bits that I just can’t agree with. I vehemently disagree with James’s equation of “doubt” with what he calls “double-mindedness”. The Greek word translated “double-minded” is dipsuchos , from dis , meaning “twice,” and psuche , meaning “mind.” James use of it to describe someone who has doubts suggests that such a person is divided in his or her interests or loyalties, wavering, two-faced, and half-hearted.

When I think of those “qualities”, I think of hypocrisy, not doubt. That’s another Greek word. In the Greek theater, actors would speak (krinomai) from behind a mask (hypo). Together the Greek words for speak and mask form hupokrisis; from that we get our word “hypocrisy”. The dictionary defines “hypocrisy” thusly: “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.” The thesaurus lists these synonyms: “affectation, bad faith, bigotry, cant, casuistry, deceit, deception, dishonesty, display, dissembling, dissimulation, double-dealing, duplicity, false profession, falsity, fraud, glibness, imposture, insincerity, irreverence, lie, lip service, mockery, pharisaicalness, pharisaism, phoniness, pietism, quackery, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, speciousness, unctuousness.” This is all very different from doubt.

To doubt, says the dictionary, is “to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.” Doubt is an honest state of uncertainty, not the dishonest state of double-minded divided loyalties, not the hypocritical state of two-facedness. Unfortunately, James equation of doubt with “double-mindedness” and his contrast of doubt with faith (like the post-Resurrection story of “doubting Thomas”) unnecessarily villifies those who have legitimate questions, those who hestitate to believe because of genuine uncertainty.

But faith and doubt are not opposites! The current Pope once wrote a book entitled Introduction to Christianity in which, using a stageplay about a shipwrecked priest as a metaphor, he took up the question of belief, faith, and doubt. He wrote:

Just as the believer does not live immune to doubt but is always threatened by the plunge into the void, so now we can discern the entangled nature of human destinies and say that the nonbeliever does not lead a sealed-off, self-sufficient life either . . . Just as the believer is choked by the salt water of doubt constantly washed into his mouth by the ocean of uncertainty, so the nonbeliever is troubled by doubts about his unbelief, about the real totality of the world he has made up his mind to explain as a self-contained whole.

Faith is the decision to believe in the face of doubt. The atheist would say that religious faith is the choice to believe something for which there is no evidence; the believer would say that refusal to believe in God is itself a faith based on ignoring evidence. Both must admit that their belief or unbelief is subject to uncertainty. This is not double-mindedness. It is intellectual and spiritual honesty.

Faith and doubt are not opposites; they go hand in hand with one another. The very nature of faith requires that we acknowledge doubt, that we acknowledge that we believe with less than 100 percent certainty. We all wrestle with the challenges, questions, and blessings of life; faith in the midst of doubt and doubt examining faith are simply part of that struggle.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Cooperating with Angels – From the Daily Office – November 13, 2012

November 13, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Revelation:

The angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Revelation 19:9-10 – November 13, 2012)

The Annunciation, fresco by Fra Angelico Perhaps among the most familiar words from St. John’s apocalypse, “Blessed are they who are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.” They are used as a fraction anthem or invitation to communion in many churches. But in this brief passage from Revelation, the most powerful image for me today is the angel saying, “I am a fellow-servant with you and your brothers and sisters.”

All too often, I think, we go through our daily lives with no an awareness of, nor gratitude for the work of the holy angels in our midst and on our behalf. Modern Christians, especially Protestants and Anglicans, seem to be a reluctant to acknowledge the angelic ministry or to call upon the angels (or the saints) for help. But angels are God’s first creatures; created to sing God’s praise and glory, they are God’s ministering spirits, sent as messengers to God’s people (as Scripture witnesses again and again) and to assistance us as heirs of salvation. The effectiveness of the angels’ work in our lives depends upon our cooperation; the more we cooperate, the better.

So, how do we do that? How do we cooperate with the angels? At the very foundation of angelic cooperation is regular prayer and contemplation of God and God’s messengers. Openness of spirit and readiness of will are the proper attitudes of our prayer.

In Carmina Gadelica, a large collection of hymns, prayers, charms, poetry and rituals gathered from the people of the Highlands and islands of Scotland in the late 19th century by Alexander Carmichael, one finds this charming blessing, which we have used as a dismissal at church services:

The love and affection of the angels be to you.
The love and affection of the saints be to you.
The love and affection of heaven be to you,
To guard you and to cherish you.

We cooperate best with the angels when we accept their love and affection in the spirit of the Blessed Virgin: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

‘Til Earth and Heaven Ring – From the Daily Office – November 9, 2012

November 8, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Sirach:

Then the singers praised [God] with their voices
in sweet and full-toned melody.
And the people of the Lord Most High offered
their prayers before the Merciful One,
until the order of worship of the Lord was ended,
and they completed his ritual.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 50:18-19 – November 9, 2012)

Engraving of a Latin Schola Chapter 50 of Ben Sira’s book is a description of a temple liturgy led by “the high priest, Simon son of Onias.” (v. 1) It is filled with poured-out wine, sumptuous vestments, the shouting of priests, the blowing of trumpets, the people falling on their faces. Not the sort of ho-hum run-of-the-mill worship service one finds in most Christian churches these days.

A committee in my parish is studying the whys and wherefores of worship, what we do, how and why we do it, how we might do it better. Music, to which these verses briefly refer, has been an on-going topic of discussion. Tastes in music vary, emotions around music are passionate, commitments to one style or another are rock-solid.

“Open the gates of hell,” a clergy colleague once quipped, “and out will march an army of music directors!” I’ve never had any conflict with the music directors with whom I’ve served, but I know clergy who have. I’ve heard tales of such conflicts from both sides, from musician friends and from clergy colleagues. Battles between clergy and musicians are not uncommon. Battles between worship leaders and congregations about music are also not uncommon. Changing, or even supplementing, a congregation’s musical repertoire is something to be approached with fear and trembling.

The purpose of music in worship is to bring glory to God; therefore, the hymns the congregation sings, and the anthems the choirs prepare, should be centered on God, aesthetically pleasing, and thoughtful. The musicians and choristers should be technically competent and well-rehearsed. The chief instrument in the worship of God should be the human voice. It is the one instrument we have in common and it is capable of great beauty and resonance. But the use of musical instruments should not be shunned; the Scriptures are filled with references to trumpets and horns, stringed instruments, drums, and other instruments. These add beauty and diversity to our songs. The style of music or the type of instrumentation does not matter; vibrancy, depth, and quality of performance do (at least for the anthems or other “performance pieces” that may be offered). For songs with words, whether performed by the choir or sung by the congregation, the theological content of the lyrics should also be of concern.

Some congregations are great at singing hymns; in other churches, only a few people dare to open their mouths. This is a great sadness. Everyone has a voice that was given them by God and God expects that voice to be used. In a former parish, we hung a sign in our entryway – “If you can’t sing good, sing loud!” – we invited everyone to sing. Whatever flaws our individual voices may have, when they are raised together in song those flaws disappear. When the Body of Christ sings, when every voice is lifted, the effect is wonderful and, I’m sure, pleasing to God. St. Augustine of Hippo is often quoted as having said “He who sings, prays twice.” Singing is much to be encouraged.

So, as that great and wonderful hymn by James Weldon Johnson says, “lift every voice and sing ’til earth and heaven ring!”

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

The Sun Will Rise on Wednesday – From the Daily Office – November 6, 2012

November 6, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Revelation:

I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations!
Lord, who will not fear
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your judgements have been revealed.”

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Revelation 15:2-4 – November 6, 2012)

This song of praise from the Revelation to St. John of Patmos is a wonderful reminder on Election Day: God is the king of the nations; he alone is holy. Remember that when you go to the polls today. We are electing political leaders, not religious ones, and certainly not a savior.

In the Psalms there is another such reminder:

Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, for there is no help in them.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish.
(Ps. 146:2-3, BCP version)

Today just happens to be the commemoration of one of Anglicanism’s greatest theologians, Archbishop William Temple, who served as archbishop of Canterbury near the end of the Second World War. He served in that post only two years, from his appointment in 1942 to his death in October, 1944. He was a prolific author of philosophy and theology, and served in the episcopate for over twenty years (Bishop of Manchester, 1921-29, and Archbishop of York, 1929-42).

Addressing the 1938 Lambeth Conference (a decennial gathering of Anglican bishops), he said:

While we deliberate, God reigns.
When we decide wisely, God reigns.
When we decide foolishly, God reigns.
When we serve God in humble loyalty, God reigns.
When we serve God self-assertively, God reigns.
When we rebel and seek to withhold our service God reigns –
The Alpha and the Omega, which is and which was,
And which is to come, the Almighty.

John of Patmos, the Psalmist, Archbishop Temple . . . they all remind us, as does the graphic annexed to this little bit of prose, that no matter who is elected, Jesus is king; no matter how we decide, God reigns.

Or as Jesus would say, the sun will rise on Wednesday.

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Coffee with Jesus is from Radio Free Babylon’s Facebook page.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Hostess Gifts For God – From the Daily Office – November 3, 2012

November 3, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Ben Sira:

Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed,
for all that you offer is in fulfilment of the commandment.
The offering of the righteous enriches the altar,
and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High.
The sacrifice of the righteous is acceptable,
and it will never be forgotten.
Be generous when you worship the Lord,
and do not stint the first fruits of your hands.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 35:6-10 – November 3, 2012)

Host and Hostess Gifts It shouldn’t, but it always surprises me when I preside at a worship service and the offering of alms (cash money) is small. This is especially so at a small-attendance service when there are only a few people but even fewer dollars in the plate. It surprises me, I suppose, because of something I was taught by my grandfather. It shouldn’t surprise me, I suppose, because of the realities of which I am aware.

Those realities include the fact that many of those present have made their weekly or monthly pledge offerings at another time during the week, at a principal service or, perhaps, by mail or by direct deposit. Those realities include the fact that many people no longer carry cash at all and have no small bills or change to put in the alms basin. Those realities include the fact that many who give prefer to do so in a way that can be tracked for tax or other purposes and one cannot do that with “anonymous” cash donations. I know all these realities and yet, because of what my grandfather taught me, I am still surprised at how few alms there are in the offering basin.

What my paternal grandfather taught me accord’s with Ben Sira’s words in today’s lesson. He said, “Never approach the altar of God without a gift of thanksgiving. Even if you’ve already paid your pledge in some way, even if you’ve already attended the week’s principal service and made a major donation, open your wallet and give a little extra.” My grandmother always took a “hostess gift” when my grandparents were invited to dinner or another gathering at someone else’s home; I suppose, in some way, my grandfather’s insistence on an offering at worship was like a “hostess gift” to God. It is a visible act of thanksgiving and is as much a reminder to me as to anyone of my need to be thankful and generous. lt is much more for my benefit that I give than for that of the church or any mission or ministry it may support.

God doesn’t really need our hostess gifts, but we need to give them.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Gentle Partisanship – From the Daily Office – October 31, 2012

October 31, 2012 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Ben Sira:

Many have fallen by the edge of the sword,
but not as many as have fallen because of the tongue.
Happy is one who is protected from it,
who has not been exposed to its anger,
who has not borne its yoke,
and has not been bound with its fetters.
For its yoke is a yoke of iron,
and its fetters are fetters of bronze;
its death is an evil death,
and Hades is preferable to it.
* * *
Take care not to err with your tongue,
and fall victim to one lying in wait.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 28:18-21,26 – October 31, 2012)

Partisanship I am a political junkie (to use a term probably copyrighted by the NPR radio show Talk of the Nation). I love the democratic political process by which we in the United States choose our leadership. I don’t, however, love what it sometimes makes me become – a hyperpartisan. Once I have considered the issues and the candidates, once I have decided for which candidate or party or side of an issue I am going to vote, I am decidedly opinionated and not shy about sharing that opinion.

The reading from Ben Sira today concerns slander rather than opinion (or at least that is how the translators have rendered the original which literally means “a third tongue”). I don’t think I have ever actually slandered any politician, but I will admit that my opinionated descriptions of some have been less than kind. I think Ben Sira’s admonitions may nonetheless apply.

Recently my friend Sarah, who is a priest and a military chaplain, posted this reflection as her Facebook status:

I have been avoiding overtly political posts since I love and serve a broad cross-section of the population and will not host hostility in my home or on my fb page. As a spiritual guide, it is time for me to openly say something about the things people of faith must consider if they are to follow the shared fundamental ethics of the major world religions. As a priest and minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is time for me to say something about what it means to vote Gospel values. It means voting for whomsoever has a preferential option for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the outcast. It means voting for whomsoever has demonstrated consistent concern for bringing high places low, for straightening crooked paths, for feeding the hungry, honoring the despised, protecting the least of these. We are a community, and while rugged individualism may be an American value, it is not a Christian value. If you want to vote your values, vote out of the conviction that God can and will honor self-sacrifice out of love for “the least of these.” If you want to live your values, practice love and not vitriol. If you want to vote your values, do not try to force your personal moral practices about things related to sex into the laws of the land. Instead, make this country a great place for all people from all socioeconomic classes to be married and raise children. Continuing praying for God’s love to prevail even if it costs you and me and us everything. If you pray for God’s love to prevail, share that love, including love for your enemies. This means action in word and deeds, including how we regard those who believe differently than we do. It means a return to civility and bipartisanship. As one of my medical colleagues (who, by the way, I imagine will vote quite differently than I would like him to!) lives by: “charity faileth never.”

I agree with Sarah wholeheartedly as to what it means to vote one’s values and what it means to vote as a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s those last couple of lines in her Facebook status that call me up short! It’s the embodying of those same values in our political discourse as well as in our vote that I have trouble with. It’s the “words and actions,” the “civility and bipartisanship”, the never-failing charity part.

I try, Lord knows, I try to be like Sarah. I try to follow Ben Sira’s admonitions. I don’t always (in fact, I seldom) succeed. But I hope that Thomas Merton was right, that the desire to please God does in fact please God, that though we do not succeed there is merit in the attempt. (The Merton Prayer)

I will always love politics. I will always be partisan. God grant that in my partisanship I can be gentle, or at least try to be . . . and I hope that that is enough.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Category: Prayer (Page 41 of 48)

A Sober Thanksgiving Reminder – From the Daily Office – November 22, 2012

Faith in the Face of Nothing – From the Daily Office – November 20, 2012

Vision and Salt – From the Daily Office – November 19, 2012

The Valley of Decision – From the Daily Office – November 17, 2012

Doubt and Double-Mindedness – From the Daily Office – November 15, 2012

Cooperating with Angels – From the Daily Office – November 13, 2012

‘Til Earth and Heaven Ring – From the Daily Office – November 9, 2012

The Sun Will Rise on Wednesday – From the Daily Office – November 6, 2012

Hostess Gifts For God – From the Daily Office – November 3, 2012

Gentle Partisanship – From the Daily Office – October 31, 2012

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