That Which We Have Heard & Known

Occasional thoughts of an Anglican Episcopal priest

Category: Daily Office (Page 10 of 70)

Signs and Wonders – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the NT lessons for Monday in the week of Proper 7B (Pentecost 4, 2015)
Acts 5
12 Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles.

I will be spending most of this day on airplanes and in airports traveling from Cleveland, Ohio, to Salt Lake City, Ohio (via Atlanta, Georgia, for some reason) for the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I am an elected alternate deputy of the Diocese of Ohio and have also been appointed a Legislative Aide to Legislative Committee No. 11, a committee of bishops, clergy, and lay deputies who will conduct hearings about, consider, possibly amend, and make recommendations to the two Houses with regard to the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Church Music. ~ There are a number of things that will be done at this meeting of the General Convention: decisions will be made about the church’s response to marriage equality; about the commemoration of saints; about the structure of the church (whether to make the General Convention smaller, whether to do away with Provinces, how to constitute the Executive Council, what authority to give the Presiding Bishop, and so forth); a budget will be adopted; and a new Presiding Bishop will be elected. And a lot of other things will be dealt with, as well. ~ Will “many signs and wonders [be] done among the people”? I sort of doubt it. We like to believe that our General Conventions, our diocesan conventions, our deliberative assemblies and church synods continue the tradition of the apostles, but we seldom accomplish anything that has the impact the Book of Acts ascribes to their actions. Nonetheless, these decisions are and will be important to the Episcopal Church and its members, episcopal, presbyteral, diaconal, and lay. ~ So, all of us who will be there, bishops, deputies, staff, and volunteers, will very much appreciate the prayers of the people among whom, and on whose behalf, all of our “signs and wonders” will be done.

Restrict Gun Ownership – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the NT lesson for Friday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 3, 2015)
Acts 2
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Yesterday morning I was cut to the heart, as were many people, by news of the killing of nine persons at a church in Charleston, SC, by a 21-year-old gunman. “What should we do? What can we do?” many people asked. Even our president asked and then admitted helplessness because of the apparent impossibility of change in our national legislature. Throughout the day politicians, pundits, and everyday people pondered that question. Even comedians got serious.

Late in the evening, I wrote the following, which I have titled Severe & Radical Gun Ownership Restriction: A Manifesto.

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I was ordained into the Sacred Order of Priests 24 years ago on the evening of June 21, 1991. That is the eve of the Feast of St. Alban, First Martyr of Britain. The gospel lesson for Alban’s commemoration begins:

“Jesus said, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.'” (Mat 10:34-39)

Today the United States is once again in mourning because of a mass killing. Nine members of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, including the church’s pastor, were gunned down during a prayer meeting last night. The victims were black; the shooter was white.

Pundits on the Right (to be more explicit Fox News anchors) have tried to portray this as part of a “war on Christianity.” It’s not. This killing was motivated not by religion but by racism and hatred.

Pundits on the Right (a Fox News commentator and a member of the National Rifle Associations board) have tried to suggest that this killing would not have happened if the pastor had been armed. In fact, the NRA board member posted a comment on a Texas gun-rights bulletin board essentially blaming the pastor for these deaths because he voted, as a state senator, against an open-carry law. The failure of logic, the sheer madness of these comments boggles the mind.

In an earlier Facebook conversation, a colleague said that we in the US have a dysfunctional government. I replied that we have a dysfunctional society. As political comedians have been saying for years, we have the government we deserve.

Our government is merely a reflection of the country that elected it. We kid ourselves when we complain about Citizens Unite and corporate money in politics; those corporations wouldn’t have that money and be that powerful if we hadn’t allowed them to grow that way.

We complain about the NRA and the power it wields, but it only has that power because those who believed otherwise about firearms stood by and let the NRA take control.

We complain about systemic racism but we have done nothing to change the system.

Edmund Burke said it best, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Good people for generations have done nothing as our society has sickened and the government we have is the result.

Politician Rand Paul’s ridiculous response to the Charleston killing was to say that there is a sickness in our country ~ that part he got right ~ about which government can do nothing ~ he’s wrong on that. Government, good functional government, can solve the problem. But that means changing the government and, for that to happen, good people have to do something.

Which brings me back to the gospel lesson for St. Alban’s Day. We have violated the spirit of Jesus’ words in this story that Matthew tells. Jesus expected his good news to create friction between people who would otherwise be expected to not merely get along, but to love and support one another, to create enmity between intimate family members. That doesn’t happen because we are too concerned with being nice to one another. Like the good people Edmund Burke blamed for evil, we don’t say anything which might upset someone. And we think we’re being “Christian” when we do so; we think we’re being nice like Jesus.

But … as someone (I can’t remember who) commented in a discussion about the upcoming General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Jesus wasn’t nice. He was demanding as hell! He demands that we stand for something and take risks for it, risking friendships and family relationships for what we know to be right, no longer allowing evil to flourish simply because we are too nice to say anything.

The nine people shot at Emanuel Church are dead because of a cancer fed by three major toxins in our society: racism, mental illness, and guns. We have to deal with all three, but the one that is most dangerous because it is acute is the issue of guns. If guns were not part of the mixture, these deaths would not be occurring. We could (and should) work on one of the other chronic toxins, but let’s face it … if we work immediately on racism, mental illness and guns is a combination that will still result in death; if we work on mental illness, racism and guns is a combination that will still result in death. Racism and mental illness is a combination that’s bad, but nobody’s going to get shot!

So, as I see it, guns need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.

I used to be in favor of regulation, of licensure, of required training, of mandatory insurance, of background checks. I used to believe that the words of the Second Amendment, “a well-regulated militia,” could be used to rein in the problem of unfettered gun ownership. As a former competitive shooter (a long, long time ago), that seemed reasonable to me.

No longer. Guns are part of the toxic cancer killing this country.

I now believe it’s all or nothing. Either we cut out the tumor or we die. The Second Amendment should be repealed and private ownership of handguns and automatic or semiautomatic weapons outlawed. I can see no other way to end this crisis of death and destruction, no other way to treat the cancer than with radical surgery.

I know there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening, but cancer is cancer. It’s time to cut it out — it’s killing this country.

And it’s time to stand up and be counted as favoring radical elimination of the threat unfettered gun ownership presents to our society. If that means our closest confidants, our friends, members of our families, whomever become our enemies, so be it. It’s what Jesus told us to expect. And if racist, mentally ill, gun owners shoot us down for threatening their beloved weapons, well … Jesus told us to expect that to. It may require us to give our lives for the sake of the gospel of peace.

I’m fine with that. I’m not fine with standing by any longer and allowing evil to triumph. From now on, I am a vocal advocate for severe and radical restriction and regulation of gun ownership.

Not “The Will of God” – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 18, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the OT lesson for Thursday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 3, 2015)
1 Samuel 2
33 The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; all the members of your household shall die by the sword.

This is part of a speech delivered to Samuel by a “man of God’ speaking on God’s behalf. I am often dismayed by the violence described in Scripture as the will of God. Even when God incarnate in Jesus Christ refused to engage in violence in self-defense and allows himself to be arrested, scourged, and crucified, we are later told by the church as it develops its theology that this, too, was the will of God, the sacrifice of the Son to satisfy (or at least with the foreknowledge and plan of) the Father. This is one reason I no longer use or encourage the use of the words, “The word of the Lord,” at the end of liturgical readings of Scripture. The Bible is not “the word of the Lord,” nor are the acts of violence it records the “will of God.” The Bible contains the words of human beings trying to make sense of their lives and history, and one way humans have done that is to distance themselves from their own savagery by blaming it on God. ~ I awoke this morning to news that a white suspect shot several people in a predominantly black Christian church in Charleston, SC, last night. According to the Charleston Post and Dispatch, a young white man joined a Bible study group at Emanuel AME Church for a short while, then stood, drew a weapon, and killed the pastor and perhaps nine others. He left one woman alive, telling her that “he was letting her live so she could tell everyone else what happened.” I couldn’t help but think of her when I read this verse. ~ The Charleston police chief is quoted by the paper as saying, “It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives.” Really? I thought as I read that. Given the blatant racism that has re-emerged in our country since the election of the current president? Given easy access to firearms and the rush to “open carry” laws in conservative states (including, I believe, South Carolina)? Given the witness of Scripture and human history to bloody violence throughout every age? Violence, racial violence and mass murder unfathomable? Frankly, I find the police chief’s comment unfathomable. ~ In any event, the last thing I hope to hear (but I’m sure I will hear) is someone referring to last night’s horrible events being somehow “the will of God.” That is the “witness of Scripture,” but it is a wrong understanding of Scripture. The will of God is never death; the tellers of ancient stories in the Bible may have thought it was, but it wasn’t. When God speaks for Godself, through the prophets and incarnate in Jesus, God makes that clear: “[God] will swallow up death forever” and “will wipe away the tears from all faces” (Is 25:8) and “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10b) ~ These deaths are not the “will of God;” they are the will of one misguided man in a misguided culture. This is not a divine tragedy; it is a human one. May the dead rest in peace and rise in glory, and may those left behind be comforted.

Use It or Lose It – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 17, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From New Testament lesson for Wednesday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 3, 2015)
Acts 2
7 Amazed and astonished, [the crowd] asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

At an earlier time, and with regard to another context, Jesus had told his followers, “Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time.” (Mt 10:19) Some years later, Paul would write, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Cor 12:7) ~ So, I’m wondering how long do these gifts last? Are there some that last a lifetime and some that manifest only as long as context requires? For how long after the day of Pentecost did the apostles retain the ability to speak the various languages of the empire? Legend has it that many of them scattered to distant places, to Ethopia, to India, to Spain: did they go to the countries where the languages they’d been given were spoken because they retained that ability? Or did their linguistic talent fade, as mine always does, with lack of use? I’ve studied and gained some degree of fluency in four languages other than English: Spanish, Italian, French, and Irish Gaelic. To my sorrow, I’ve retained not much more than a few phrases of any; lack of opportunity to converse has meant a loss of ability, an atrophy so to speak. Is it the same with the various gifts of the Spirit? “Use it or lose it”? I suspect so.

Heard and Known – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the morning Psalm for Tuesday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 3, 2015)
Psalm 78
3 That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us, we will not hide from their children.

Earlier today I had a conversation with a colleague about a newspaper article containing advice to teenagers: don’t whine; the world doesn’t owe you anything; get a job; do something useful; visit somebody; mow the lawn. It was wordier than that and, in my opinion, it was gently put: it admonished them to contribute. My colleague, on the other hand, said it just sounded like “Get off my lawn!” It was just something from a cranky old man who’d forgotten what it was like to be 18. ~ I’m 63; my colleague is in his early 30s. Do you suppose that makes a difference in our perceptions? ~ But I thought of today’s morning psalm and this verse, the very verse from which I took the title of this blog. How do we communicate what “we have heard and known” to a younger generation without sounding like curmudgeons and cranks? Do we remember what it sounded like (or at least how we heard it) when “our forefathers … told us?” I do … it sounded like “Get off my lawn!” … like just some old fart who had never been 18 or, if he had, had forgotten what it was like. ~ Is it even possible for one generation to pass on to another “what we have heard and known” without sounding like that? Maybe not. Maybe younger persons (yes, I was one at one time) can’t hear an older generations wisdom until they, too, are an older generation. How many of us have had the experience of saying something and then thinking, “When did I start sounding like my father/mother?” It’s when we have that experience, perhaps, that we finally appreciate what our forebears “heard and knew;” perhaps that’s when we’ve finally “heard and known.”

Privilege of Stability – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 15, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the OT lesson for Monday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 3, 2015)
1 Samuel 1
20 In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

The story of Samuel intrigues me. Turned over to the priest Eli at a young age, dedicated in accordance with his mother’s promise to a life of service to God, he lived and ministered as a priest, a prophet, and a Judge of Israel in the same place for his entire life. I find that almost impossible to understand. I have lived more places than I can count without getting out a notepad and writing them down! ~ When I was sworn into the federal bar in the District of Nevada, I had to complete an FBI background check application which asked for all of my residence addresses up to that point. I was 32 years old at the time; I realized that at that point in my life I had lived at 35 addresses. (I believe my parents invented “flipping;” I lived in and helped them fix up so many homes that I know how to do things associated with nearly all of the building trades!) ~ It also occurred to me as I gave thought to Samuel’s life and career that in a few days I will be celebrating the 24th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, and that I have just celebrated my 12th anniversary as rector in my current parish. What that means is that I have spent more than half of my presbyteral ministry in a single congregation. I think that’s actually rare in today’s church. In some traditions, itineracy is the norm and clergy are moved on a regular basis. I read somewhere that the average tenure of an Episcopal priest in a congregation now is less than five years. I have to say that I think there is something to be said for longer pastorates; development of personal relationships and growth in community leadership takes time, usually more time than we give them. I’m not sure I could have been happy with a life-long, young-childhood-to-old-age placement, but I am glad to have had the privilege of stability for the past dozen years.

Just Get Along – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the OT lesson for Saturday in the week of Proper 5B (Pentecost 2, 2015)
Sirach 46
7 And in the days of Moses [Joshua] proved his loyalty, he and Caleb son of Jephunneh: they opposed the congregation, restrained the people from sin, and stilled their wicked grumbling.

One wonders if it is mere coincidence that group organization is the theme of the Daily Office readings recently. This praise of Joshua, son of Nun, assistant to Moses, is paired today with Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth: “Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Cor 13:11) My week has been filled with organization and reorganization and failure of organization, preparing for hosting a bunch of overnight guests, the (probably) last vestry meeting of the summer, and heading off (in nine days) for the two week legislative extravaganza that is the Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention. I’ve done a bit of “wicked grumbling” myself, forgetting Paul’s admonition to “put things in order” and “live in peace.” So … I repent. I hope those I may have upset will forgive me and I extend the hand of peace to those who have rubbed me the wrong way. In the famous words of Rodney King, let’s just all get along!

Only the Dead Could See – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Gospel lesson for Friday in the week of Proper 5B (Pentecost 2, 2015)
Luke 19
41 As [Jesus] came near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

On the hillside of the Mount of Olives, coming down toward Jerusalem from Bethphage, is a massive graveyard. Stone mausoleums hold, in one huge area, the bodies of dead Jews hoping to be first among the resurrected; in another large area are buried the bodies of dead Muslims also hoping to be first among the resurrected. Just across the Kidron Valley at the foot of the eastern wall of the city is a Christian burial ground filled with more dead hoping to among the first in the general resurrection. Just to the north of the Jewish tombs and overlooking the Muslim graves is a church designed by Antonio Barluzzi known by the Latin name “Dominus Flevit,” which means “The Lord wept.” It stands on the traditional site where Jesus stopped before entering the city, shed the tears Luke reports, and uttered this lament. It is a small church with a few chairs and simple altar; the altar window is plain glass. In the center of that window one sees the Dome of the Rock sitting atop the Temple Mount. When I was there, the vessels of the Holy Eucharist sat on a ledge in front of that window. As I sat in that church looking through the that window, the holy things of three Abrahamic faiths merged into a single picture: dome, mount, communion. The land and city within which they stood was not and never has been at peace, but here the things of peace sat. The only ones enjoying the peace which those things promise were the hopeful dead lying peacefully in their graves awaiting resurrection. The things that make for peace were not hidden; they were there in plain sight, but only the dead, at peace and hidden from our eyes, could see them.

Pretty Trippy – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 11, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Epistle lesson for Thursday in the week of Proper 5B (Pentecost 2, 2015)

2 Corinthians
2 I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.
3 And I know that such a person – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows –
4 was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

OK. “Third heaven?” This is one of those “don’t read the Bible from a 21st Century point of view” passages. Paul’s cosmology is 1st Century; specifically, it is 1st Century Jewish. The Jews of Jesus’ and Paul’s day conceived of “the heavens” as being three-layered. The “first heaven” was the earth’s atmosphere where birds and wingéd things flew about, where the wind blew, where storms brewed. The “second heaven” was the realm of the planets, stars, and celestial bodies. The “third heaven” was where God lived; presumably, this is the realm to which Jesus was understood to have “ascended.” It’s not a scientific world view, which is not surprising in a pre-scientific world. If we read Paul’s account of “one person’s” experience – Who does he think he’s kidding, by the way? This is the old “Doctor, I have a friend . . . .” ploy! We know he’s talking about himself. – as a scientific description of an actual physical event, we’re going to consider Paul bonkers and, with him, everything he’s written (i.e., most of the New Testament). If, however, we read this as a spiritual experience, described in terms of the prevailing cosmology of his society, it makes a good deal more sense. We may choose not to believe that this experience has any value or validity, but we can’t simply dismiss it out of hand because of scientific inaccuracy; it was never intended to be scientifically accurate! ~ Nonetheless, I do have to admit that being “caught up to the third heaven” sounds pretty trippy!

Excuse Me? What? – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Epistle lesson for Wednesday in the week of Proper 5B (Pentecost 2, 2015)
2 Corinthians
21b But whatever anyone dares to boast of – I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast of that.

What a way to start a bit of Scripture! The second sentence of a verse which begins with the exclamation, “To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!” Because I read the Daily Office, as the name suggests, daily, I know what comes before and to what the writer of the epistle is referring, but still and all . . . as a reading for the day, this is a strange place to have put the dividing line between lessons. It gives me, as a reader, the sense of coming into the middle of a conversation. ~ My spouse is in the habit of continuing conversations started days before. Just a few days ago she walked into our dining room, where I was working and concentrating on some financial files spread out all over the table, and the first words out of her mouth were: “And, anyway, the chipmunks eat tulip bulbs!” Excuse me? What? It turns out that she was referring back to, and continuing, a conversation we had had while gardening the weekend before. She’d replayed that conversation in her memory and now was continuing it out loud with me who, of course, was not privy to the rewind in her head. So I was lost. Only after stopping her and getting her to replay her memory tape out loud could I join in. ~ I often find reading the Bible to be like that, like I’m coming into the middle of a conversation and, indeed, that is what the reader of Scripture is doing. This is why study and paying attention to context are so important. Søren Kierkegaard called the Bible a love letter from God. That’s a lovely image, but I find Scripture even more dynamic than that. It’s a conversation and, like any conversation, it requires our full attention and participation. Otherwise, we will be left constantly in an attitude of “Excuse me? What?”

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