That Which We Have Heard & Known

Occasional thoughts of an Anglican Episcopal priest

Category: Daily Office (Page 9 of 70)

Use Your Imagination – From the Daily Office

July 15, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary for Wednesday in the week of Proper 10B (Pentecost 7, 2015)

Mark 2:14 ~ “As [Jesus] was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.”

This is one of those mornings when what I read in the appointed Scriptures dovetails so nicely with something I read in the news (or in this case on a friend’s Facebook page) that I can hardly believe it. I don’t often read the Episcopal Cafe blog, but a colleague posted a link to yesterday’s notice there of comments by a Baptist preacher (pastor of a megachurch in Dallas, Texas) when interviewed on Fox & Friends (a show I admit to never ever watching). I linked to a clip of his interview and, sure enough, just as reported in the Episcopal Cafe headline, this fellow said that liberal churches “are following the Jesus of their imagination rather than the Jesus of the Bible.” ~ It occurred to me that since at least 33 A.D. not a single human being who follows Jesus as Lord has done anything differently. Levi (who is sometimes also identified as Matthew) and his colleagues “got up and followed” Jesus, a real flesh-and-blood guy whom they could reach and touch and with whom they could eat, walk, talk, cry, laugh, and tell jokes. Since his Ascension, however, not one other person has been able to do that. We follow a “Jesus of the imagination,” just like the Baptist preacher said. Even the Baptist preacher follows a “Jesus of the imagination.” ~ To start off, we follow a Jesus of the imaginations of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and the other writers of the New Testament. These men (any women there?) like every writer of every genre of literature made use of imagination in setting pen to paper (or parchment or velum or whatever) to tell their stories. Then each reader employs his or her own imagination in bringing to life in his or her mind the characters and events of the story. The Gospels and other documents of the New Testament are not verbatim histories; they are personal stories infused with imagination and read with imagination and, as a result, we all follow “the Jesus of [our] imagination.” We can’t help it. ~ It is when one comes to that realization that it is possible to abandon dogma, bigotry, and ignorance, to enter into real conversation with Scripture, and to actually engage with and follow Jesus. Then, and only then, can a follower of Jesus encounter and engage with others in real dialog. ~ One is tempted to note that, in a very real way, even our encounters with, our following of “real-life flesh-and-blood” human beings are encounters with imagination! Our imaginations filter, color, and influence every interpersonal encounter we experience. So, my advice to my Baptist colleague: stop denying and start using your imagination.

Irredeemable Name-Calling – From the Daily Office Lectionary

July 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary for Monday in the week of RCL Proper 10B (Pentecost 7, 2015)
Acts 11:26 – “…. and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’.”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the power of naming or, more accurately, name-calling. ~ That is the origin of the term “Christian,” after all. The followers of Jesus did not use this term of themselves; they simply called themselves “followers of the Way.” It was their neighbors and detractors who first called them “Christian,” and there is some evidence that the word used was actually “Chrestian,” note the “e” rather than an “i” in the first syllable. This is not simply an orthographic error; this variant spelling has its own meaning, something like “Goody Two-Shoes”…. The early followers of Jesus held themselves to a high ethical code and so their neighbors believed they may have thought themselves better than others; they made fun of them as excessively virtuous do-gooders. The Christians, however, embraced the epithet, changed its spelling, and made it their own. ~ Name-calling has been on my mind because of the experience of a teenage girl in my parish who’s been the brunt of some particularly vicious bullying and obscene name-calling at school. When she made a complaint to a teacher, the response from the school authorities was to suggest to her and to her parents that she should dress “less provocatively” (she doesn’t dress any differently than others of her age and class, by the way). ~ Years ago it was pretty common to hurl the word “queer” at contemporaries who were suspected of being homosexual, but like the Christians of Antioch the LGBT community has embraced the epithet and made it their own. My young parishioner cannot do that; the name-calling being hurled in her direction is simply irredeemable. ~ This is not a case where the victim can take positive action of that sort. But it is a case where the church can take action; if nothing else, as her parish priest I can write a letter of protest to her school authorities, and stand by her and her parents as they wend their way through the bureaucratic nightmare of victim-blaming that is so often the response to bullying in our public schools. That’s one small step in combatting a very big problem. The church as an institution needs to do more. We need to live up to the Antiochene epithet; we need to be excessively virtuous do-gooders in opposition to irredeemable name-calling!

Teaching, Not Nature – From the Daily Office Lectionary

July 11, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary (Yr 1), Saturday in the week of Proper 9B (Pentecost 6, 2015)
1 Samuel 17
43 The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Yesterday, I was listening to a news commentary on NPR while there was a discussion of the so-called “Islamic State” (“ISIS”) and whether it had any pretentions of attacking Israel. There have apparently been some arrests of Bedouins in the occupied West Bank and of Palestinians in East Jerusalem who are claimed to be ISIS confederates. An expert “talking head” was being interviewed and in the course of his comments said of Jews and Muslims, “They are natural enemies, of course.” ~ I frequently talk back to my radio . . . and talk back I did: “No!” I shouted. “They are not!” I’m willing to admit that in the animal kingdom there may be a few sorts “natural enemies;” the cobra and the mongoose, for example, seem always to be at odds, and there may be other pairs like them. Between differing species there may be natural enmity, but I am unwilling to say there is natural enmity between groups of the same species, especially between groups of human beings. There may be natural rivalry, but not natural enmity. ~ Enmity is not natural; it must be taught. Even the relationship of predator and prey, though it may be “natural,” is not necessarily one of enmity. The young of predator and prey species, raised together, coexist peacefully. The internet is filled with videos of cats and mice being chummy, of dogs and deer who are best buds, of cats and birds playing together. Unless a parent animal teaches her offspring to hunt and kill their “natural prey,” they will not do so. Unless a parent human teaches his or her offspring to fight and kill those of another group, they will not do so. David the Israelite and Goliath the Philistine need not have been enemies; contemporary Israelis and Palestinians need not be enemies. The former were and the latter are taught to hate, taught to fight, taught to kill. As Lieutenant Cable sings in Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific:

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

It’s teaching that makes enemies, not nature.

Back at the Beginning – From the Daily Office Lectionary

July 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary (Yr 1), Friday in the week of Proper 9B (Pentecost 6, 2015)
Mark 1
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Here we are, a little past half-way through the calendar year, somewhat further along in the church’s liturgical year, and we’re starting over. The middle of July and we’re back at the beginning. For an Episcopalian recently returned from the General Convention, this is a good thing! As important as the triennial governing synod is, as vital as the issues we addressed (or failed to address) in our legislative hearings and floor debates are, as necessary as elections and budgets may be, those things are also, in a very real sense, distractions. Jesus once reminded the Jews of his day that “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.” (Mk 2:27) We need the same kind of reminder that the General Convention exists to serve the Gospel, not the other way around; beginning at the beginning does that for us. The General Convention and its results are important, but only to the extent that they serve the church in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When the issues of the day take our attention away from our main business, then the General Convention is dangerous distraction. ~ My son and daughter-in-law, both deputies to this recent Convention, took a few days of vacation to hike the mountains of Colorado. Friends (at whose stamina I marvel) flew to their homes from Salt Lake City (the location of this triennium’s synod) and almost immediately boarded other planes to fly to China or to Japan or to the Holy Land. Unlike them, I returned to home and church office and immediately dove into the minutiae of parish ministry. Unlike them, I returned to home and church office and to a barrage of questions about the work of the Convention. Unlike them, I didn’t take the time to clear my head of resolutions, elections, and budgets. I thought they were crazy to embark on vacations with such immediacy; now I see that they were wiser than me. When they return, they will be better able to focus on the beginning of the Good News. Perhaps that should be made a requirement for everyone who serves in any capacity at the General Convention: “You shall take vacation when this is finished! You shall clear your heads of all this stuff!” ~ In any event, the Convention has done its work. We have a new church reality in which to work. We are back at the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Yeah, Not So Much – From the Daily Office Lectionary

July 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary (Yr 1), Thursday in the week of Proper 9B (Pentecost 6, 2015)
1 Samuel 16
14 Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.

I can relate. At least to the first part of the verse. How often have I stared at a blank paper or a blank computer screen wondering what to write? Whether it be a letter of condolence to a parishioner who’s lost a family member, note of congratulations to someone, a report to the vestry, or (worst of all) a sermon for next Sunday, what secular authors know as “writer’s block” hits hard and I am left completely uninspired (which, as you know, means that the spirit is absent). That’s been the case most of this week. I’ve had to write two letters of condolence, one newsletter squib, a letter in response to a complaint about a sermon (thank heaven, those aren’t often required), and some sort of something to preach next Sunday, and it’s been like pulling teeth without anesthetic to get the words put together. When I’ve tried to write for this blog . . . nothing; that’s why there’s been no entry for a few days. So I read this verse (or the first half of this verse, anyway) and I can relate. – But “an evil spirit from the Lord”? I don’t get that. What does that mean? If the text simply said “an evil spirit,” it would make sense to me. If it say “an evil spirit from Satan (or the tempter or the devil or Baal or some other agency),” that would make sense. But “an evil spirit from the Lord”? I don’t get that. Does God really send “evil spirits to torment” God’s people? This is, honestly, one of those times when I have to look at the Hebrew Scriptures through the lens of the Gospel, squint, and say, “Yeah. Not so much. I think you got that one wrong.” As one of my seminar professors would have said, “The Gospel trumps the Bible.”

Sacrificing Orthodoxy – From the Daily Office Lectionary (6 July 2015)

July 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Daily Office Lectionary (Yr 1), Monday in the week of Proper 9B (Pentecost 6, 2015)
1 Samuel 15
22 Samuel said [to Saul], “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”

I’ve just returned from two weeks in Salt Lake City, Utah, attending the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church as an alternate deputy for the Diocese of Ohio and working as a legislative aide to the committee on Prayer Book, liturgy, and church music. The Episcopal General Convention is a huge and fairly unwieldy legislative body, bicameral legislature made up of a House of Deputies (four clergy and four lay representatives from each diocese) and a House of Bishops (every bishop whether active or retired). About 1,000 people meet every three years to state the church’s positions on various issues, to adopt or amend canons (church laws), to make changes the church’s constitution or Prayer Book, and to adopt a budget. Parachurch organizations, seminaries, vendors of church wares, religious communities, missionary societies, and hundreds of volunteers come along for the ride. One participant the past fortnight described the convention as “summer camp for adult church geeks;” that pretty much describes it accurately. It’s also very much a big family reunion with a lot of activity, including a good deal of bickering.

The bickering, I think, is the result of a lot of people all trying to heed and obey the voice of the Lord, which each hears in a somewhat different way. Coming away from the convention I had several hours of opportunity to scan the Twitterverse and Facebookistan (terms I learned from a friend) and one huge word kept recurring in the serious posts (there were a lot of fun ones as people’s senses of humor took over): that word was “orthodoxy.” In one conversation thread, I typed in something like, “Oh … groan … I am so tired of seeing that word used as a barrier to communication, as a ‘fighting word”.” I was, in turn, accused of being “dismissive.” But I am tired of this misuse of the word “orthodoxy” and similar terms! I really am! “Orthodoxy” and its synonyms and antonyms have become an epithets which close off discussion.

Originally a word which meant “proper praise of God,” it morphed to mean something like “proper belief about God,” and now has become personalized in most usages into “what I believe to be correct about anything churchy.” So we heard (and will continue to hear) some people claim to hold “orthodox” views about marriage or the Prayer Book or the Hymnal or church investments or whatever, while disparaging others as not “orthodox.” What this really means is that the speaker has closed his or her mind and ears, and is sacrificing open communication on the altar of their personal opinion.

All that “orthodoxy” really means anymore is that each of us, individually or in our small affinity groups, hears God speaking in different ways; each of us seeks to obey the voice of God as we perceive it. Thus, my “orthodoxy” may not be your “orthodoxy.” When someone uses this word, though, they are not claiming to speak only for themselves; rather, they are claiming that their opinion is the agreed-upon opinion of the ancient, historic church. They are covering themselves in a mantle of traditional authority, and that cloak has the unfortunate effect of muffling their hearing so that, if God is speaking through another with a new voice, they cannot hear it. If one cannot hear, one cannot heed and obey.

Here’s an idea. Let’s declare a moratorium on the word “orthodoxy” and all its permutations. If tempted to use the word, say instead, “This is what I believe and what I believe the church to have been teaching throughout the past, what do you believe?” or “This is the metaphor for God that makes most sense to me, what metaphors work for you?” or “This is what resonates in my spirit, what reverberates in your soul?” Let’s hear and heed rather than sacrifice communication on the altar of our personal, allegedly “orthodox” opinion.

New Tools, New Generation – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Gospel lesson for Friday in the week of Proper 7B (Pentecost 4, 2015)
Luke 22
35 Jesus said to them, “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “No, not a thing.”
36 He said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one.”

It has always confused me why Jesus, near the end and close to his anticipated arrest, tells his disciples (the Twelve) to go buy weapons. When the time comes to use the swords, he does not let them. Perhaps the swords are for a later time, after his death, resurrection, and ascension, a time when the church will be persecuted and need protection. Hard to know. However, it’s possible the conversation is simply metaphorical. Perhaps the lesson is not specifically about weapons but more generally about having the tools and equipment one needs for the task one faces. When the disciples were sent out on their missionary journey, they took nothing because there was nothing needed other than their message; now that the message has been rejected (and will be fully spurned when the world tries to kill the Messenger who is the Message) different tools are required. ~ In the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church now happening in Salt Lake City, Utah, the deputies and bishops are debating resolutions, theology, canons, structures, and practices, but I believe they are really talking about tools. What tools are required for the tasks the church faces in the 21st Century. Some of that re-tooling has already begun in the use of electronic technologies (the “Virtual Binder” – a real-time, instantly downloaded version of the old three-ring binders filled with reams of paper – the website on which the rest of the church and the world can follow the deliberations, texting and Tweeting and Facebook and “selfies”; it’s all here and it’s all in use). ~ It’s a generational change, tectonic shift in the ground on which the church moves about. President of the House of Deputies Gay Jennings continues to remark that 46% of the deputies are first-timers; another 20% are at their second convention. She underscored this by sending, as the messaging committee to the House of Bishops bearing the information that the House was organized and ready for business, the deputies born after 1990; it was a very large committee, and I was deeply moved watching them gather, receive their commission, and depart the house to do their business. The generational shift was then underscored when the House of Bishops’ committee made its visit to the Deputies and the Bishop of Kansas’ opening words were, “We were born in the 1950s.” ~ A new generation, one that is “native” to the new tools and new ways the church must adopt and use, is taking over. Thanks be to God!

The Youngest Who Serve – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the Gospel lesson for Thursday in the week of Proper 7b (Pentecost 4, 2015)
Luke 22
25 [Jesus] said to [the disciples], “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors.
26 But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.”

Within the next couple of days the Episcopal Church will have a new Presiding Bishop. Yesterday we had something akin to a group job interview in which the four nominees sat on the dais of the House of Deputies and answered questions posed by members of the Joint Nominating Committee speaking on behalf of the church. It was also somewhat like a beauty contest; anyone who has been through an episcopal election as candidate, elector, search committee member, or member of an electing diocese is familiar with the metaphor and the form. The four candidates are all men; one is black, the rest white. All are distinguished churchmen of middle age; the youngest is 56, the eldest 64 (there was plenty of grey hair on that platform). They all had lovely things to say; each said something I could whoop and holler about; each said something that made me unhappy. What none of them said was, “I will become like the youngest;” what none of them said was, “I will be like one who serves.” ~ One of the things I’ve noticed about this General Convention is the number of young deputies. My son and daughter-in-law (who are in their early thirties and late twenties) who are both deputies have many, many colleagues among those who are now governing our church. None of them, of course, is qualified by our canons to become Presiding Bishop. However, I couldn’t help but wonder what it might be like if one of them were to take the helm. How might this church be different if our leadership truly were like these, the youngest who serve among us? ~ I wish the new Presiding Bishop well. Whichever one of these distinguished bishops is chosen to serve, he will be in my daily prayers, one of which will be, “May he be like the youngest, and like one who serves.”

Raise an Ebenezer – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the OT lesson for Wednesday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 4, 2015)
1 Samuel 7
5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”
6a So they gathered at Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord.

It feels like centuries ago, but it was only decades, I was an active lay person in the Diocese of Nevada when the late Wes Frensdorff was bishop. In the middle of Nevada is the town of Tonopah and in Tonopah is the Mizpah Hotel. Wes liked to hold diocesan committee meetings in Tonopah because it was a place mutually inconvenient to nearly everyone. This fortnight, the Episcopal Church is meeting in triennial General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, a place that nationally might be considered “mutually inconvenient” to nearly everyone. Today the work of the convention really starts. Yesterday, legislative committees met and organized. Today, they start to deliberate on numerous resolutions presented. This convention will deal with both internal affairs (electing a new Presiding Bishop, adopting a budget, possibly reorganizing the structure of the church, considering amendments to the canons and the church constitution). It will also deal with matters of import to the larger society, perhaps none larger the issue of marriage equality and how the Episcopal Church will minister to same-sex couples. I’m sure that many bishops and deputies will feel like they are doing battle with the Philistines, as the Israelites did at Mizpah. It is my prayer that when it all said and done we can look back at the work of the Convention and, like the Psalmist in today’s evening psalm, each one of us can say, “I have done what is just and right,” and like Samuel, we can raise an Ebenezer and say, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Milch-Cows (Humility & Love) – From the Daily Office Lectionary

June 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From the OT lesson for Tuesday in the week of Proper 6B (Pentecost 4, 2015)
1 Samuel 6
10 The men did so; they took two milch-cows and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
11b They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the gold mice and the images of their tumors.

Although Scripture is replete with images of and references to the greatness and magnificence of God, every so often we come across these little gems displaying God’s humility. The Philistines, who have captured the Ark of the Covenant but found it a dangerous possession, inquire of “the priests and the diviners” what to do about that, how to rid themselves of this thing that is causing them tumors. “The priests and the diviners” tell them to put it on a cart pulled by milch-cows and send it home (the cows, apparently, will know the way). So that is what they do. And, sure enough, the cows take the cart to Beth-shemesh in the country of the Israelites; it is met by Levites who take charge of its cargo. ~ It’s a strange little story but what grabs my attention is the detail of the homely milch-cows. Given other stories of the God of the Hebrews, you’d think something more grand would have been called for. One should note that the priests and diviners consulted by the Philistines were probably not those of Israel and their opinion of the Hebrew God might not have been high has God’s own people’s…. still, if God were insistent upon all the pomp and circumstance the Bible usually demands for God, putting the Ark on a cow-drawn cart might have had serious repercussions! The story suggests to me that the religious royal ostentation we usually read about in Old Testament is of human, not divine, origin. It suggests to me that just as love is understood to be central to God’s Being, so to is humility. In fact, it reminds me that there is an unbreakable link between love and humility. Love is impossible without humility. ~ I do hope all of us gathered in Salt Lake City for the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will remember that!

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