One Cannot Have Too Large a Party

Daffodils Redux

2012-02-11T10:30:00.000-05:00

A few more daffodil/narcissus/jonquil glamour shots for your Saturday morning!

Friday afternoon weed/wildflower break

2012-02-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Pokeberries.

On pokeweed.

From which we get
poke salet or poke salad.

Which is toxic to mammals unless you prepare it properly.

My advice?
Don't eat it.

Morning Collect for Peace

2012-02-10T07:33:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of peace,

and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel

for the nations of the earth,

that in tranquility your dominion may increase

until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(BCP 258)

Daffodils

2012-02-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

The warm winter has meant early flowers in the South. In Atlanta, we had cherry trees blooming at New Year's. Here in Williamsburg, the daffodils are in full bloom around town now and trees are thick with buds.

I have always loved daffodils. When I was growing up, we always called them jonquils. Then I started hearing people say they were a kind of narcissus. According to The Flower Expert, there is no difference between daffodil and narcissus, but jonquil is one of the cluster blooming varieties. Whatever.

One of the reasons I love daffodils/narcissi/jonquils is that they are yellow. Yellow is my favorite color, as many of you know. It's a happy, warm, sunny color. Daffodils/narcissi/jonquils are, too, among the early spring bloomers. Sure, the crocus is the first bulb to burst forth in bloom, but they're so tiny! And tulips are beautiful, but we couldn't grow them in Atlanta except as annuals. Daffodils/narcissi/jonquils they come back every year, often in larger numbers and make a big splash . And I'm all about the big splash. Especially during the gray days of February.

We had quite a few types planted at our house when I was growing up. There were the large, pale white ones that were very cool and regal. The little cluster ones (jonquils, I know) on their thin dark green stems - some of them were all yellow and some white with yellow trumpets. The garden variety all-yellow ones in big bunches. My favorite was the one called "Scrambled Eggs" (some folks call it "butter and eggs"). I guess officially, they're "double" flowers. In roses and camellias, we're used to doubles and less familiar with singles, but the opposite seems true for daffodils.

So enjoy a little sunshine during these gray days of February and look around for some daffodils in your neighborhood. Or if you live in a place where they are not blooming now, just Google "daffodil photos" and see if you don't feel better.

Visual Morning Prayer

2012-02-09T06:45:00.000-05:00

Taking wing.

Wordless Wednesday: Passage Tomb

2012-02-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

Passage tomb at Newgrange,
Ireland.

Morning Canticle: Venite

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Venite Psalm 95:1-7

Come, let us sing to the Lord; *

let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *

and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *

and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *

and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *

and his hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *

and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *

Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

Houses and Home

2012-02-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

I like to walk in neighborhoods and look at the houses. I like to do this nearly anywhere, including at the beach when I imagine what it might be like to live in the houses I walk by. I imagine what the people who live there are like and what kind of decor they have. It's always nice - their furniture is nicer than mine and they have oriental rugs and wainscoting in the kitchen and interesting architectural details that aren't nuisances.

One thing I haven't done much of yet here in Colonial Williamsburg is walk around the historic district. The times I have started out to do so, I almost never have gotten very far. Often it's because I run into someone and get into a conversation and then my time is up. Or I have an errand to run that puts me in my car instead of on the street. Sometimes I need to get some lunch and the historic area is kind of crowded.

The other night, however, I decided to take a stroll down Duke of Gloucester Street about sunset. By that time, all the venues (except the taverns) are closed and the tourists are pretty much gone. We do have street lights and it's quite safe to wander around after dark. So I walked all the way down DOG Street (as the locals say) and back in the gathering dark.

Without people on the sidewalks, I got a good look at the houses as I walked by. Some of the houses are actual houses that people are living in, while others are used as replicas of colonial shops and the like. It was quite pleasant, both to walk through the neighborhood and to do my usual imagining.

Probably not surprisingly, it was a little different imagining people who might live in these houses. Were they people who wear jeans and flip flops or something more like period dress? Who would live in a house on DOG Street, anyway? Is it weird? Do people have modern furniture in them? (I wondered about my leather couches and chairs and whether they would "go.")

I definitely need to do this more often, to begin to feel more at home here. I am at home in my rental, and I'm at home in my office, but I still don't quite feel connected to Williamsburg itself. I haven't quite embedded myself in the community yet. I think it might be best done on foot.

Morning Collect for Cornelius the Centurion

2012-02-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

O God, who by your Spirit called Cornelius the Centurion to be the first Christian among the Gentiles: Grant to your Church such a ready will to go where you send and to do what you command, that under your guidance it may welcome all who turn to you in love and faith, and proclaim the Gospel to all nations; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Lent Madness is Coming! (So, how does it work?!?)

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

Remember last Lent when we played Lent Madness?

Well, it's baaaack! Or at least it will be back in just a couple of weeks - beginning on "Ash Thursday," February 23. This year Lent Madness is bigger and better, with the help of Forward Movement and several more Celebrity Bloggers (you may remember that I was one of the four C.B.s who blogged the final four round last year). Lent Madness now has its own website (www.lentmadness.org) and several posts are already up about this year's tournament. Leading up to the actual beginning of Lent Madness, L.M. founder Tim Schenck and Forward Movement's Executive Director Scott Gunn will be posting a video conversation each Monday about how things are shaping up, and once the competition begins, they'll do some Monday morning quarterbacking.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Lent Madness (or who didn't quite get what it was all about last year), it works like this....

Well, first, maybe I should explain the name. Here in the U.S., we have something called March Madness, which is a phrase used to describe the annual NCAA college basketball national tournament. Most of this single elimination tournament takes place in March and folks from all over love to get the initial brackets with all the teams and their match-ups listed and pick winners for each round. Some of this may involve betting, which of course we do not encourage her at The Party unless the proceeds go to charity. Offices run pools (I know, that's really betting pools), as do some families (including mine!). It helps keep up interest in the games when you have a team to pull for.

OK, so what is Lent Madness? During Lent, we also have a bracket but instead of basketball teams, we have saints. You can see this year's bracket here. The purpose of this game is to help us learn more about the saints, those holy folks who have gone before. So every week day, there will be a matchup between two saints, and you go go the website and read about the two, and vote for your favorite right there on the post. At the end of the day, the polls will close and a winner will be announced who will go to the next round.

There are two ways you can play. First, you can print off a bracket, get together with some family, friends, youth group, Canterbury group, foyer group, staff.... you get it. Have everyone fill out a bracket by predicting who will will each round. Have someone keep score for the group and at the end, give a prize to the person who had the most wins.

The actual who-wins part, though, takes place on the blog. Each weekday, go to LentMadness.org and, as mentioned above, read about the saints and vote for your favorite.

And what will be on the website each day? Celebrity Bloggers (there are 8 this year - read about them here) have, for the first round, written biographies of the saints, along with a picture of some kind. This is how you'll learn about the saints. The second round, the Saintly Sixteen, will take things a little deeper - we'll offer up Quotes and Quirks about each saint still in the running. The Elate Eight round will feature Saintly Kitsch (you won't believe some of this stuff - or maybe you own some of it!). And the final four - well, that could be a saintly slugfest. With wings and haloes, of course. Because this is a devotional tool, remember.

So that's it. We've had lots of publicity this year (which you can read about on the website) and lots of folks are joining in. I hope you will, too! Like Lent Madness on Facebook. If you have your own blog or website and would like to put a Lent Madness widget (like the one on my blog) on your blog (which I hope you will do!), see how to do that here. Be sure to bookmark the site on your computer. You can sign up by email to subscribe, or you can put an icon on your iPhone or iPad, too, which will take you directly to the site from your home screen (thanks, Scott!). (To do that, go to the website on your phone or pad, and you'll see a little arrow thingy that instructs you to tap it to make an icon for your home screen.)

Our Canterbury Group at The College of William & Mary will be playing as will our youth group here at the parish. I hope your group will, too. Lent Madness really is a great way to become familiar with those heroes of the church. We may be giving up the alleluias, but we never give up learning more about our faith and tradition.

Morning Prayer for the Right Use of God's Gifts

2012-02-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance, and, remembering the account that we must once day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the end, it's about transformation

2012-02-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

We are still only in the first chapter of Mark, and already Jesus has become something of a star. He has taken up the mantle of John the Baptizer and begun preaching in Galilee. His power is so great that his simple command “follow me” caused Simon and Andrew to abandon their fishing business and James and John to walk away from their fleet at Jesus’ beckoning.

Jesus has dazzled the crowd as he taught with unique authority in the synagogue and had an epic showdown there with some kind of a demonic spirit. He has amazed everyone with his words and deeds, and people are mobbing him with their needs and their needs and their needs in response. The whole town has come out to him, bringing their sick and demon-possessed (whatever that means) family, friends, and neighbors for him to heal and restore and make well. His actions and his words have been very public, and often very noisy, and certainly spectacular.

And in the middle of it all, he has a quiet encounter inside a house with an unnamed woman, Simon’s mother-in-law, sick with a fever and unable to perform her calling to provide hospitality to her guests.

It’s easy to skip over this part of the story in favor of the screaming demons and thronging crowds gathered at the door, and to dismiss it, as many have, as a story that perpetuates gender stereotypes. You know, that Jesus and some other important guys come to the house and the old lady there is sick, so he makes her well so she can go to the kitchen and make them a sandwich.

But let’s not gloss over this little 2-verse story.

Back in the days well before Tylenol, a fever was thought to be an illness in itself, and so it was often said that people died of fevers. Simon’s mother-in-law is perhaps on her death bed; at the very least, she is very ill and cannot receive her honored guests, which is her vocation as the family matriarch. As soon as Jesus comes into the house, he is notified of the lady’s illness, perhaps to explain why she isn’t receiving him, as Jesus has not healed anyone from a sickness up until now.

But heal her he does. He not only heals her but raises her up from her sickbed. Mark uses the same word here that he uses when Jesus himself is raised up by God after his death. She is raised to new life. Since this is the first healing Jesus does in this Gospel, it gives us a clue that the healings Jesus does and is going to do are not simply about releasing people from symptoms or illness - or even restoring them to their previous health - but transforming them. Giving them a new kind of power based on his own Spirit-filled power. The kingdom is very near to you, Jesus has been saying. And he touches people and transforms them.

So you can be sure that the response of Simon’s mother-in-law is not to make Jesus a sandwich. Our translation says she began to wait on them; but the King James and some other translations say she ministered unto them. Mark uses the same word here that he used a few verses back to describe the role and work of angels in the wilderness, when Jesus was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan: he was with beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

So Jesus has given Simon’s mother-in-law new life, and her response is to minister, yes to serve, as in to do what Jesus himself says he came to do - not to be served but to serve. To do the work of angels, if you will.

There’s a lot of need in the world. There’s a lot of need in our community of Williamsburg and even in our parish family. There is need and need and need of all kinds - need of comfort for those who mourn, need of healing for those who are sick, need of shelter, need of peace, need of friendship, need of dinner.

Some of you have those needs. You need to be ministered to.

And others of you have the opportunity to minister yourself. One of the things we do here at church is become equipped to minister to others. Our worship and partaking of the sacraments here gives us strength and courage. By virtue of our baptism, being sealed by the Holy Spirit, we are commissioned to ministry - not just the clergy but all the people. That’s what the priesthood of all believers means.

So in light of this story about Simon’s mother-in-law, she who serves, who ministers as angels minister, I invite you to think about your own call to serve, to minister to the needs of others.

I know, I’ve already said that there is need, and need, and need. It can be overwhelming. And it’s easy to think that we can never do enough in the face of such need.

But we all have gifts to share, and that’s how ministry starts. We begin to recognize our own calling by recognizing our gifts and seeing where we might use our gifts to minister to others. We begin by recognizing that we have been empowered to use our God-given talents for the good and building up of the community.

Some of these gifts are huge. The people who designed this building, who wrote the music we sing, who found hospitals and clinics, who discover cures, who run ministries serving large numbers of people have given greatly. Some of you have huge gifts to give.

But our gifts don’t have to be huge in scale to be huge in someone’s life. See how in this 2-verse story between the large-scale action in the synagogue and the massive crowd just outside the door, Jesus simply takes the hand of someone in need and transforms her into someone who ministers the way the angels of God minister.

What might your ministry look like? If you’re good with a hammer and a saw, our Bruton Builders team repairs homes. Do you love to cook? What a gift it would be to our over-extended families for you to minister to them by providing dinner for the youth on a Sunday night.

Are you a good listener? There are some lonely people who need someone to talk to. Can you pray? Check into the Daughters of the King. How about knitting prayer shawls or starting a bread-baking ministry or community garden? Can you shop for someone? Can you take your pet to visit someone who needs cheering up? How about reading Bible stories to children in Sunday School? Not because we need somebody to fill a slot but because you have a gift to give.

Do you see how you can minister to others by offering what you know how or love to do, however big or small you think your gift is? Yes, there are many people in our world who need care. And there are also people who need TO care.

We need to care because we are in the business of transformation as we carry on Jesus’ work in the world. Being cared for transforms and just as importantly, caring transforms, too. We are all intertwined, a network of those who care and those who are cared for, and that network is like a web. It holds up the community, it holds it together. We all have our part to play and we grow by playing our part. We need to know what our calling is - and everybody has a calling.

And so it is not a little thing, to find one’s calling and to live it out in the community. In the midst of national elections and the Super Bowl and international economic uncertainty, there are opportunities daily to do the work of angels on even a small scale. To minister to others, to touch others, to transform and be transformed, powered by the great and small gifts God has given us to use where we are, here and now.

What is your calling? What is your gift? And how can you use it to transform the world?

Collect for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

2012-02-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Saturday Morning Jazz Concert

2012-02-04T07:42:00.000-05:00

This is the 2012 Georgia High School All State Jazz Ensemble's concert performed in Savannah, GA on January 28th. (My son is the tallest trumpet player in the back row who is usually behind the conductor.) The video was shot and edited by the piano player's dad, Luis Rovira. Enjoy!

Friday afternoon weed/wildflower break

2012-02-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

Queen Anne's Lace

Morning Prayer for those in Trouble or Bereavement

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

O merciful Father, who has taught us in your Holy Word that yo do not willingly afflict or grieve humankind: Look with pity upon the sorrows of your servants for whom our prayers are offered. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy, nourish their souls with patience, comfort them with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon them and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Snow

2012-02-02T15:59:00.000-05:00

We have not had any snow here this winter. We have hardly even had winter. Yesterday, on February 1st, the temperatures were in the low middle 70's.

I don't mind that we're not freezing or dealing with ice or slush. But it still seems odd. The flowering trees are already blooming. Things just seem "off."

We like for life to be a bit more predictable. We like for winter to be wintry and summer to be summery. Variations put us off balance. I've noticed that even though the weather is rather nice, people have negative things to say. More than one person has mentioned fearing a frigid spring rather than rejoicing in the warm and sunny now. The conventional wisdom is that this warm weather now will have to be balanced by cold weather later, maybe an inconvenient later.

So we go through the church year, too. It just can't be Easter all the time. We move through the religious seasons and spiritual affections deliberately, remembering that, as it says in Ecclesiastes (and as sung by The Byrds), there is a time for every season under heaven. We move through the seasons and experience them deeply because we know what season it is. We know what we do in Lent (or at least what we're supposed to do) and to do otherwise seeems strange.

And so we continue to walk that line between being totally predictable (and perhaps then stodgy and uncreative and unthinking and dull) which brings a certain amount of comfor, to being off-balance, which is definitely not comfortable. The world can be chaotic, and so we want some things to be the same, no matter what. The problem comes when our desire for comfort stunts our growth and stifles creativity. We have to be put off balance sometimes so that we will engage life and grow.

But meanwhile, I wouldn't mind a little snow! It's February!

Morning Prayer for Those We Love

2012-02-02T07:55:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(BCP 831)

Wordless Wednesday: Brother to a Dragonfly

2012-02-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Morning Prayer: St Brigid

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of your blessed servant Brigid, and give you thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Talk about the Passion

2012-01-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

Some of us were talking about passion the other day. We all want to feel passionate about something. We want to care, deeply, and be energized and engaged and excited.

And yet we all have run into passion that has gotten in the way, has caused its owner to lose perspective, has numbed prudence, has been fanned into flames of anger or destruction.

Can one care too deeply for something? Does the passion that expresses itself via the red face, the shouting or cutting remark really stand in for something else? Shame? Insecurity? Fear? A heart too sizes to small (to quote Dr. Seuss)? Control issues?

There have been times when I felt passionately about something and somewhere in the middle of my fifth paragraph in conversation about that something with someone else, I suddenly began to have an out-of-body experience. I suddenly heard myself and thought, this person surely thinks I'm crazy. Or childish. Or just wrong. I need to shut up. I can see their eyes glazing over or their lips pursing. But of course I go on to paragraph six because my passion is driving me and maybe I'm not feeling heard.

But then I go off and have a good talk with myself about toning it down, about not caring so much, about just getting on with things without the roller coaster of emotions that comes along with passion.

And then I try to become careful, and measured, to be more even-keeled and philosophical. I tamp down my feelings. And then I don't take risks; and then I become dull and boring; and then I become less me instead of fully me.

The thing is, there have been times in my past when I let my passions rule me, and the results were not so good. I got myself in trouble or ended up somewhere I didn't mean to be and didn't know what to do about it. I wondered what a nice girl like me was doing in a place like this. I admit that there are still times when I'm just afraid of passion. I'm afraid of being out of control; I'm afraid of being swept away; I'm afraid of looking stupid or getting myself in trouble.

Perhaps that's how Jesus ended up on a cross, because of his passion. Come to think of it, that's what they call it - his passion. We read the Passion Narrative twice during Holy Week and we see what happens when things get out of control.

And yet.... And yet God so loved the world. That's God's passion. For us. Out of God's exuberance the stars and frogs and strawberries and the mountains and wild oceans and we were created. Unbridled passion, that.

We enjoy God's passion for us, I preach it all the time, but we don't really want to end up like Jesus. We don't want to have that kind of passion if it ends up with that kind of result. I know I don't. I want some kind of safe passion, but the truth is, I don't think such a thing exists.

Tuesday Morning Visual Prayer: Light a Candle

2012-01-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

(In the Chapel at St Edward's Episcopal Church, Lawrenceville GA)

Evening Prayer: A Collect for the Presence of Christ

2012-01-30T16:58:00.000-05:00

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companions in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

Photo of the Day: Crocus

2012-01-30T14:17:00.001-05:00

I have assisted with several funerals this month in our parish. Today I gave the homily at a funeral in church and then accompanied the family to the cemetery for the burial. When I got back to the parish house, this little beauty greeted me from the garden. Matters of life and death are a mystery.

Morning Prayer for Guidance

2012-01-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of this life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sunday Afternoon

2012-01-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

No meditation today - I am away with some of the youth of our parish (and some adult companions) at a ski resort in Virginia. I hope I will have gotten some photographs to share and no doubt will have some stories to tell. I hope none of them are about me falling down. Although I do not ski and will not be getting on skis this weekend, I am perfectly capable of falling down while on my own two feet.

I will appreciate your prayers as we return home today after appreciating the majesty of God in the mountains, in the snow, in fun and laughter, and in the bread and the wine at our morning worship together.

Collect for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saturday Morning Fun

2012-01-28T09:30:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning fun! Click the link below and draw a stick man! And take it on an adventure! It's sort of Harold and the Purple Crayon for geeks! Enjoy!

http://www.drawastickman.com/index.htm?o=66-69-32-67-82-69-65-84-73-86-69s69-86-69-82-89-32-68-65-89

Friday afternoon weed/wildflower break

2012-01-27T14:00:00.000-05:00

Double header today of these fuzzy grassy things.

One, and many.

Morning Prayer for Travelers

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve those who travel, in particular the Bruton Youth Group as they go for a ski retreat this weekend; surround them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring them in safety to their journey's end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Winter's Bone

2012-01-26T20:31:00.002-05:00

Not long ago, I watched the critically acclaimed movie Winter's Bone, starring Jennifer Lawrence, on Netflix. I will be honest and say that left to my own devices, I might never have watched it, but my husband was interested and even though we often have very different taste in movies, the ones he recommends to me are almost always thought-provoking and they almost always stick with me for a while.

So, too, Winter's Bone. The basic premise is that a young girl of 17 named Ree Dolly has dropped out of school to care for her younger sister and brother because their father has been imprisoned for "cooking meth"and their mother has descended into some kind of silence. They are desperately poor, and one of the things Ree does is teach her siblings how to shoot and gut squirrels for dinner. She has given up her own education for theirs and her own future for the squalid present that her parents have abdicated responsibility for. Ree learns that her father has put the house and property up for collateral for his bail but seems to be missing. If he does not turn up at his hearing, the family will be forced off the land and out of their home. And so Ree goes looking for him.

All of the Dollys are involved in the methamphetamine business in the Arkansas Ozarks. They live in a subculture littered with scrawny animals and junk cars, and populated by jumpy men and wary women. And they live by a code of silence and collusion that is meant to protect them from the law. It appears that perhaps Ree's father has broken this code, and various family members try to get Ree off the trail, first by lying to her and then by attacking her physically.

Still, Ree continues to appeal to them for help. She figures that blood ought to count for something. We're kin, she says, and my brother and sister and mother and I are poor and hungry and about to be homeless. We need help, she says, and you are our kin. But that kin is so enmeshed in their system of self-protection, that none of them can see beyond their own fears. They do not see Ree as their kinswoman; they see her as a threat. And they self-righteously lash out at her.

Still, she persists. This is a justice issue for her, and she will not give up. And finally, when she is beaten and bloody and they see what they have done to one of their own, some of the women decide to come to her aid.

I won't divulge the rest of the plot, in case you'd like to see the movie for yourself (and I do recommend it). But I'm not giving away anything by saying that this story plays out in all times and places because it is very common for a system to be about self-protection instead of kinship. It is very common for people to be unable to see others as their kin. We Christians say that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, but we have a hard time living into that. We find ways to weasel out of our obligations to one another because we are afraid, because we have surrounded ourselves with our own system that excludes those we fear or don't like or are different and don't live by our code.

And we only realize the harm done when someone is brutalized.

Does this sound familiar?

Morning Canticle: A Song to the Lamb

2012-01-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

A Song to the Lamb (Dignus es)

Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God,

For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have their being;

And yours by right, O Lamb that was slain, for with your blood you have redeemed for God,

From every family, language, people, and nation, a kingdom of priests to serve our God.

And so to him who sits upon the throne, and to Christ the Lamb,

Be worship and praise, dominion and splendor, for ever and for evermore.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: My so-called pets

2012-01-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

Most of you know that Miss Kitty and Mr Bunny are still in Atlanta with the rest of the family. So, these are my Virginia pets - The Macalester Scottie, The Cornell Ram, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Attack Bunny. My niece thought that I should have a real attack bunny since my landlord thinks rabbits are destructive and banned Mr Bunny from living with me here.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Morning Canticle

2012-01-25T08:21:00.001-05:00

The Second Song of Isaiah

Quaerite Dominum

Seek the Lord while he wills to be found; call upon him when he draws near.

Let the wicked forsake their ways and the evil ones their thoughts; And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, and to our God, for he will richly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as rain and snow fall from the heaven and return not again, but water the earth, bringing forth life and giving growth,

seed for sowing and bread for eating,

So it is my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me empty;

But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, and prosper in that for which I have sent it.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Tea

2012-01-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

We are not having that cold of a winter here (at least not yet), but we have experienced some chilly days and nights. While I see many people wandering around with their hands cradling coffee cups, I'm a tea person myself. I have a small collection of (mostly china) coffee pots and chocolate pots and tea pots (one family heirloom dating to the mid-18th century) and also a couple of tea pots I actually use. I finished off furnishing my office with the addition of a new china teapot and mugs. And at home I make frequent use of the set in the photo above, which was given to me by my tea-loving son.

Putting the kettle on is what one does when one doesn't know what else to do. Drinking in the warmth, holding it in one's hands, is comforting. And sitting together sipping tea is a way many people experience a connection with one another. It's social and communal and sometimes therapeutic. Having tea is not just about the intake of necessary liquids.

My son and his fellow pilgrims discovered something about having tea as a community building activity when they were in Ireland last summer. The guys decided to create the nightly ritual of having tea together, and eventually they began inviting the girls and the adults to join them. Part of it was fun - wearing their button up shirts and arching their eyebrows and maybe extending the pinky finger and all that. But part of it was also probably a recognition of their own need to create community as they were away from home, in a foreign country, trying out some new freedoms and trying on some new identities.

Everyone needs rituals, and if we don't have them already in our lives, we will create them. They help us stay centered, they give us comfort, they help us have something to do with our hands, they feed us and nourish us in many ways. We love the familiar, the almost rote activity of doing what we know how to do to mark time or change or to bring comfort and stability into our world.

Blessed be the ritual of tea.

Morning Prayer for Social Justice

2012-01-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

Grant, O God, that your hold and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Birds

2012-01-23T14:18:00.000-05:00

Today as I was leaving the parking lot for lunch, I noticed a beautiful cardinal (male, bright red, pointy-headed) flitting around the car parked next to mine. As I got closer, I saw that he was fighting with himself - he was flying over, under and around the side mirror, pecking at his reflection. When I got even closer, he flew over to a nearby branch to wait me out.

And when I returned a little later, there he was again, this time on the windshield, swiping at his reflection with well-placed beak jabs.

I got a chuckle out of it, but at the same time I winced. I have to say that I have done an awful lot of fighting with myself over the years. It isn't pretty.

What I mean by that is that I see in "other people" things that I don't like ... and then if I will take time to reflect, I will most likely realize how guilty I am of doing those same things. I get irritated about someone's whining about something but if I stop and think about it, I suddenly realize how much whining I am doing myself. I am whining about their whining. I get put off by someone's negativity only to recognize, later, my own engaging in negativity. I don't like someone to one-up me, and so my response is to one-up them. "I don't like people to act all superior," I think superiorly.

It isn't pretty.

But it's pretty common.

Jesus said, "Be sure to take the log out of your own eye before you go after the speck in someone else's eye."

Yes.

Morning Prayer for our Enemies

2012-01-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hearing the Master's Voice

2012-01-22T13:30:00.000-05:00

We ask in the collect for the day today (see the previous post) for God to give us grace to answer the call of our savior and to proclaim to all the world the Good News of his (to us, meaning our!) salvation. Our proclamation of that Good News is how the world will understand just what a Big Deal this is, this salvation. And that Good News does not reflect upon us, but reflects God's glory. The point of our witness is to point to the goodness and marvelousness of God.

The trick is to be able to hear God's call to us in specific situations and to reflect God's glory in the world in the midst of normal, every day life. So often we focus on having some kind of conversion, of acknowledging God's claim on us, apart from the rest of our lives. As if it is extra, this grace and this salvation; as if it is something tacked on at the end so that we know we will end up in heaven. The part about living out our faith in ordinary times seems harder to figure out.

Apart from standing on the street corner, preaching to the crowds as they go by (which happens even here in Williamsburg, Virginia!), which is not something that many of us feel called to do, how does one witness in every day life? How does one live out the Gospel at the grocery store or the golf course?

The people I know who seem to be witnessing in this way are people who are steeped in a life of prayer themselves. They engage in regular practices of prayer - the listening kind, not the talking kind - and seem to stay grounded in that listening. They don't seem to be in such a hurry to make proclamations. But you can tell that they are listening, and they are not only listening to God but they are listening to the people around them. They always have time to listen. They always have time to slow down and engage and smile and touch and you can see in their eyes that they care.

It is that caring, that taking time to attend to people (often to people who are hurting), that is the witness. While many of us are aware of God's speaking to us through Scripture and through nature and through people, many of us also experience God's silence in the face of our outpourings. I am beginning to see that silence not as non-response but as God's listening.

And so today I commend listening to our companions in the way as a way to witness to God's own listening and a way for us to listen ourselves for God's reminder to us that the world is full of hurt and brokenness and sometimes all we can do in the face of that is companionable listening.

Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

2012-01-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saturday Star Wars Movie

2012-01-21T12:18:00.001-05:00

This is last year's VW commercial for the Super Bowl, which is one of my favorite commercials ever. (Not that I have that many favorite commercials, I might add. I'm not that much of a TV watcher. In fact, I don't have a TV in my house in Williamsburg.) During this video you'll see a place to link to the 2012 VW commercial, which, if you click and watch it, you'll see is connected to this one. And I'm guessing there is another commercial that will link to it, which we'll maybe have to wait for the Super Bowl to see. Clever.

Friday afternoon weed/wildflower break

2012-01-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

Honeysuckle

Morning Canticle: Benedictus es, Domine

2012-01-20T09:21:00.001-05:00

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; you are worthy of praise; glory to you.

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.

Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you, beholding the depths; in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday, a day late

2012-01-19T14:00:00.000-05:00

A windy day at the beach!

Morning Canticle: Ecce, Deus

2012-01-19T06:30:00.000-05:00

The First Song of Isaiah
Ecce, Deus
Isaiah 12:2-6

Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.

For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.

Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation.

And on that day you shall say, Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name;

Make his deeds known among the peoples; see that they remember that his Name is exalted.

Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things, and this is known in all the world.

Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, for the great one in the midst of you

is the Holy One of Israel.

Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

What's Underneath

2012-01-18T13:30:00.000-05:00

This is what is left when clematis flower petals fall off. Striking, no?

Here it is with petals. Quite lovely, but in a very different way.

We all of us have outer selves and inner selves and some kind of structure that holds it all together physically and also something that holds us together spiritually.

It all has its form (of some kind) and function (of some kind) and it all has its own beauty.

When our lovely outward petals fall off, we have something else that is also beautiful in perhaps a different way.

As I get older, I become more interested in the part that's underneath.

Morning Canticle: Magna et mirabilia

2012-01-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Song of the Redeemed

Magna et mirabilia

Revelation 15:3-4

O ruler of the universe, Lord God, great deeds are they that you have done, surpassing human understanding. Your ways are ways of righteousness and truth, O King of all the ages.

Who can fail to do you homage, Lord, and sing the praises of your Name? For you only are the Holy One. All nations will draw near and fall down before you, because your just and holy works have been revealed.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Photo of the Day: Pet Investigation part 2

2012-01-17T13:45:00.001-05:00

Miss Kitty checks on the back yard goings on.

Morning Canticle: Te Deum

2012-01-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

You are God
Te Deum laudamus

You are God: we praise you;

You are the Lord: we acclaim you;

You are the eternal Father: all creation worships you.

To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,

Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

The glorious company of apostles praise you.

The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.

The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.

Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you;

Father, of majesty unbounded,

your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,

and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.

You, Christ, are the king of glory,

the eternal Son of the Father.

When you became man and set us free

you did not shun the Virgin's womb.

You overcame the sting of each

and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

You are seated at God's right hand in glory.

We believe that you will come and be our judge.

Come then, Lord, and help your people,

bought with the price of your own blood,

and bring us with your saints

to glory everlasting.

Photo of the Day: Pet Investigation

2012-01-16T15:22:00.001-05:00

Mr Bunny moves in for a closer look.

Morning Collect: Martin Luther King, Jr.

2012-01-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Come and See!

2012-01-15T13:41:00.001-05:00

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Nathanael has a moment of sarcasm here. Or perhaps some kind of partisanship, I don't know. Maybe he's just the master of the witty quip - we all know people like that, who can, in the blink of an eye, deliver sharp and dead-on commentary to the delight of all in company. Nazareth? Oh yes, that place. Ugh. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? he says. And everybody giggles and nods.

What I like in this passage is Philip's response. Philip doesn't get all huffy or defensive. He doesn't engage Nathanael in a debate. He doesn't even call him on his slightly curled-upper-lip comment. He just says, "Come and see." See for yourself, have an experience of the other, before you cast judgment. Only he doesn't say the last part, the slight rebuke. He just says, "Come and see." Philip trusts that Nathanael will have an experience of Jesus and understand. He doesn't need to issue a warning.

I don't know what kind of person Philip was before he met Jesus, but it is interesting to note that Philip's comment (come and see) is the same as what Jesus said to Andrew and another of John's disciples in his first encounter with them. Philip is already doing what Jesus would do: not engaging in harangue or partisanship or argument or witty quips but inviting people to experience and see for themselves what Jesus is all about.

We're all full of quips and witticisms. But when it comes to following Christ and sharing the Gospel, our well-timed delivery and even our eloquence are secondary at best. As the saying goes, preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words. And perhaps, still, as few words as we need. How about just "come and see?"

Collect for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

2012-01-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Saturday morning music: Praise my Soul the King of Heaven

2012-01-14T09:13:00.003-05:00

On Saturdays, the suggested canticle for morning prayer is always the Song of Creation, which begins

Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord, Praise him and highly exalt him forever.

And every section repeats, Praise him and highly exalt him forever.

This is a song of praise if I ever heard one. The Westminster Abbey Choir sings "Praise my Soul the King of Heaven." Listen out for the soaring descant on the last verse.

Friday afternoon weed/wildflower break

2012-01-13T14:07:00.001-05:00

During the season after Epiphany, the "Friday afternoon break" photo series will feature representatives of that fuzzy category "weeds."

Recognizing that one person's "weed" is another person's "wildflower," depending on the person, the plant, and the location of said plant, I will simply say that the photos I'm using in this series are of "stuff that grows beside dirt roads in the countryside." But that didn't look so swell in the post title, so we'll go officially with "weed/wildflower" and remember that, as in all things, insofar as it is necessary (and that question itself is totally up for grabs), God will in the end determine and separate the weeds from the wildflowers.

Here's a dandelion, gone to seed. Resist the temptation to blow on your computer screen!

Morning Prayer for Fridays

2012-01-13T08:58:00.001-05:00

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy

but first he suffered pain,

and entered not into glory before he was crucified:

Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,

may find it none other than the way of life and peace;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Q&A With Getting #Married Author Meredith Gould!

2012-01-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

We're on a roll with books this week!

Today's post is an interview with my friend Dr. Meredith Gould (@meredithgould), Roman Catholic self-proclaimed gadfly, sociologist, author, and founder of the #chsocm (church social media) blog and moderator for most weekly tweetchats. Her personal blog is More Meredith Gould and you can find out more about her here.

Meredith married Episcopal priest The Rev. Dan Webster (Canon for Evangelism and Ministry Development for the Diocese of Maryland) on November 5, 2011. Their wedding was a major social media event, having been planned and celebrated via Facebook, Twitter, and Meredith's blog, and gathering friends and family from all over to attend the ceremony both IRL (in real life) and virtually (via U-Stream). I attended IRL (meeting both Meredith and Dan for the first time in person!), but I also participated in the pre-wedding stuff via Facebook and Twitter.

Meredith's new book Getting #Married has just been published (print and electronically), available through CreateSpace and from Amazon. Her book is both a "why-to" and a "how-did" with suggestions and questions to consider about using social media for wedding planning and to make one's wedding a public event ─ as weddings traditionally are supposed to be!

Ready for the interview? Read on....

So, Meredith, even though you’re a social media pro and I'm sure it just seemed natural to use social media for your wedding, was there an initial thought, issue, or event that sparked the impulse to make yours a Very Social Media Wedding versus simply using social media for some publicity and personal enjoyment?

A series of events plus a personality quirk got me keen on using social media and other online technologies for everything wedding-esque. Events include conversations during and in between church social media (#chsocm) chats about the value of social media. I was especially “sparked” by conversations about the propriety of using it during or for worship.

For everyone who declares it distracting and wrong there were others who argue social media is helpful and a tool for evangelization. I’m one who says there’s a way to use social media in a way that enhances the sacred and how we absorb liturgy.

I’ve also learned over the past four years of involvement with social media (early adopter!) that these are über-experiential media. Telling people about social media just doesn’t work, showing does. Providing an experience of using social media wisely and well with care and propriety is more compelling than endlessly arguing about it. I figured (and Dan agreed) that our wedding would be a perfect living demo laboratory. It was! I wrote Getting #Married to describe and explain the why of it, as well as the how.

The personality quirk? I’m always trying to make a point! Charming or annoying, depending on your perspective/tolerance.

I know you're a big fan of The Holy Spirit. What surprised you the most about using social media for planning and celebrating your wedding?

BIG fan of the Holy Spirit. Veni sancte spiritus! I was totally unprepared for what came our way via Twitter and Facebook. Deeply moving . . . to grateful tears.

As you know but your readers might not, my “day job” involves providing social media strategy and editorial services for the healthcare industry. I’m blessed with a large, far-flung community of colleagues, one of whom organized a #tweddingshower from 3:00-6:00PM the day before. She invited folks in the #hcsm #hcmktg and #mccsm communities to tweet well-wishes. I set up CoverItLive to capture everything tagged #3xCharm and #tweddingshower during that period of time and was deeply moved by the support and love of community.

I was also surprised and delighted by how people from different parts of my life got to know one another because of social media. Later I’d discover how a friends in Oregon, Michigan, and Maryland chatted about crying while watching the exchange of vows. That could not have happened without U-Stream and Twitter.

By your own admission, there were times (thankfully few!) when your inner Bridezilla threatened to upset your equilibrium as the wedding date drew near. How were you able to use social media to deal with that all-too-common aspect of wedding planning?

Ah yes, my Dr. Bridezilla moments. Glory be, etc. I mostly used my personal blog for times of head-exploding aggravation, then linked those posts to Twitter and Facebook to share the love. Early on I found a fabulous image of Godzilla dolled up in wedding gear and would post that at strategic times. I mostly used images and YouTube videos to convey whatever fit I was pitching, rather than writing it all out in a post. My little way of practicing the impending role of Clergy Spouse. Thanks be to God!

Congratulations, Meredith and Dan, and here's to many years of happiness together!

Morning Prayer for Guidance

2012-01-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being:

We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit,

that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you,

but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Pssst! Wanna buy my book?

2012-01-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Partiers,

Today's post is a shameless plug for my new book! OK, it's not totally my book, but I am one of several contributors to Walking with God Day by Day, a collection of short daily devotions (365 of them!) which has just been published by Forward Movement. And it is yellow, which is my favorite color. And I'm the author featured on the back cover, which made my mom really happy.

If you're like me, you may have meant to start the New Year off right with a new book of devotional reading, but you might have not actually gotten around to procuring actual reading materials. But, it's still early in the New Year, and to sweeten the deal, The Rev. Scott Gunn, Executive Director of Forward Movement (and fellow celebrity blogger from last year's Lent Madness fun) is offering you, my Large Party readers, a 25% discount on the book. And if you were thinking of some devotional reading for Lent, well, now you've got a chance to get way ahead of that game.

(And speaking of Lent games, stay tuned for news about the new, bigger, more-r improved Lent Madness this year! It turns out that our fun with Perpetua vs. Thomas Becket last year was one of Fr Tim's most-read posts of the year, which means that Lent Madness is going to get its own blog this year! And of course you'll want to vote for my saints! But I digress.)

So, here are Scott's instructions on how to get the discount: order via Forward Movement's website or call (800-543-1813). Just use the code AUTH25, and they'll reduce the price of the book by 25%. Alas, the "antediluvian website" (Scott's term, not mine) won't show the discount right when you order, but they'll take it off when they process the order.

Or, if you want to get the book right away so you start your daily devotional reading RIGHT NOW, it's also available on Kindle and Nook (no discount, but it's already cheap there).

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-God-Day-Meditations-ebook/dp/B006CS6N0U/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/walking-with-god-day-by-day-forward-movement/1107833023

Below is a sample of what you'll find in the book - a sneak preview, if you will, of one of my reflections. I assure you that the other authors' contributions are even better and they will make wonderful spiritual companions for you throughout the year. I've really enjoyed being part of this project - it was fun to write and fun to see the book published and now really meaningful to stop and read from it every day.

.......................................................

Journeying

“Journey” is an important theme in religious life. The followers of Jesus called themselves followers of the Way. Jesus called himself the Way. We have a vast tradition of pilgrimage in fact and literature—from fourth-century Egeria’s diary from Jerusalem, to Chaucer’s fourteenth- century Canterbury Talesfrom imagined English pilgrims, to modern day pilgrims young and old in Iona or Assisi or walking the Camino Real through Spain.

In that other great religious tradition, sports, there is also the theme of journey, on-the-road-to, which is ubiquitous in the sporting world. In the spring, NCAA basketball teams will be on the road to the finals in New Orleans. During the Olympics, feature stories traces various athletes’ journeys to the Gold (medal). Every year there is a“Road to the Superbowl.”

Many of us characterize our spiritual life as a journey and our- selves as pilgrims, seeking God, seeking the Holy, seeking, seeking. We call ourselves seekers. We place ourselves, or sometimes simply find ourselves, on the Way. We know that life is a journey; life in God is a journey; life together is a journey.

What do we hope to find? Is the destination the thing, or is it about the journey? Was Jesus “On the Road to the Cross?” Is Advent the “Journey to Christmas” and Lent the “Journey to Easter?” Are we willing and able to hold them both, journey and destination, in tension—developing the eyes to see and the ears to hear the wonders and the mysteries as we move among them—so that in the end, wherever and whatever that end is, we know we have come near the heart of God? —Penny Nash

Morning Collect for Quiet Confidence

2012-01-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved,

in quietness and confidence shall be our strength:

By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray,to your presence,

where we may be still and know that you are God;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

After Epiphany

2012-01-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

Many of us are a little sad to put away our Christmas decorations, even if the sadness is more about the tedium of packing everything up and lugging it into the attic or wherever it all goes than it is about the end of the Christmas season. Then there's that layer of dust that is left behind that must be dealt with at some point. (I haven't actually dealt with it at my house yet myself.)

Still, after a few days, I like the clean, plain, uncluttered and undecorated windowsills and the regained counter space and the spare plainness of January after the beautiful excess of December. I like the simplicity after the sumptuousness. I like seeing the basics right there in view. I feel encouraged to strip down to some basics in myself as well.

Today's Gospel reading from John (chapter 1:19-28) finds the Pharisees asking John the Baptizer, "Who are you?" For John has confessed and asserted: I am not the Messiah and I am not Elijah and I am not the Prophet like Moses. And the Pharisees want to know, "If you're not the person we're expecting you to be, who are you then?"

When you strip off the decoration, when the party is over, when you get down to the basics, who are you, then?

That can be a tough question at certain times in our lives, particularly in times of change. After a move, a new job, a new child or children flying from the nest, marriage, divorce, aging, retiring..... life is full of change and after each change we have to reassess and reevaluate. Who am I now?

But the basics stay the same. I am a child of God and for whatever reason, God cares for me. That stays the same.

Morning Prayer for the Right Use of God's Gifts

2012-01-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us

all that we possess:

Grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance,

and, remembering the account which we must one day give,

may be faithful stewards of your bounty,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Reflecting

2012-01-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

I don't find it hard to reflect on life any more (the idea of, much less the proceess of, reflection having been pretty much non-existent until I was well into my 20's), but sometimes I still find my reflections to be more like wisps and half-formed ideas and thus hard to write about. Being in a new place, I also feel that much of my reflecting needs to be done over a longer period of time. Wouldn't want to go off half-cocked and all of that.

Also, I find I need some distance in order to properly reflect on something. I need to not be in the middle of it. And while it is true that sometimes an insight just arrives almost magically in my brain or in my heart or in my soul, it is especially true that I need to be intentional about reflecting. I need to set aside time and place for looking back at the day or the week or a situation or an incident and let those insights bubble up from within. I well remember a trusted mentor telling me that the answers I seek are always inside me, and I just need to make room for them to come to the surface.

Beach time is reflection time for me. A trip to the beach, a walk on the beach, gives me that time and space for prayer and for reflection. Everyone has their special places, their thin places, and for me, oceanside is one of those places where I find this wonderful confluence of atmosphere, sound, smell, and tactile experience (I simply must take my shoes off, no matter how cold it is, to walk in the sand along the water's edge as if it were holy ground). The rhythmic sound of the waves, the birds' cries, the crunch of the sand underfoot aid my inner ear and heart and eye.

And the beauty! Oh, the beauty! Water, sand, vegetation, shells, and all the birds and their activities! Fishing, preening, resting, floating, diving, eating, flying... the birds at the beach remind me that life is full of doing and not just thinking or wishing or regretting. I think that's a good backdrop for my reflection time.

If you've read my blogger profile, you will see that I try to go to the beach as often as I can. And I am pleased to say that I now live just over an hour's drive from the ocean. I spent the afternoon on Saturday at a National Wildlife Refuge where all sorts of birds (and other wildlife, including a marsh rabbit who allowed me to hang out with him while he grazed) flock in the wintertime. And I plan to go back often. This is the closest I've lived to a beach since I was in college. I think it will be good for my soul. Very, very good.

Where is the place that is most conducive for reflection for you?

Morning Prayer for Joy in God's Creation

2012-01-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty:

Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand

in all your works;

that, rejoicing in your whole creation,

we may learn to serveyou with gladness;

for the sake of him through whom all things were made,

your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Overwhelmed by Joy

2012-01-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

Text: Matthew 2:1-12

All throughout Advent and Christmas, we have been concerned with the story of the anticipation and fulfillment of prophecy in the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah has proclaimed loudly that salvation is coming thanks to God’s mighty arm, that justice is coming, and that our salvation will be beautiful, and comforting, and it will be like coming home again after being set free from a long and oppressive slavery.

And then the utter shock that that fulfillment came in the form of a human baby born to a young and unwed mother in a stable surrounded by animals. The shock that God comes to us as one of us, as one of the least of us, really, in stature and in the class structure. The shock that God breaks through the heavens and comes to us to live among us, to live with us, to live for us, beginning as a little tiny child with no place to lay his head.

Everyone is amazed. “How can this be?” Mary asks, speaking for all of us. How can this be?

And everyone is somewhat fearful. What can this mean? People were afraid to come too near God and too near God’s messengers - conventional wisdom said that if you looked upon God, you would die. You would not be able to withstand being in God’s presence - not because God means to hurt us but because of the vast difference between humanity and divinity. Frail humanity would wither away in the presence of the awesome Almighty God the way ice melts on a hot sidewalk.

But “Fear not, Mary,” says the Angel. “Joseph, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” says the Angel. Don’t be afraid, shepherds, at the sight of a chorus of winged messengers in the sky but go and see for yourself what has happened, for to you, for you, the savior has come. And the wide gap between divine and human has been bridged.

And so the story has been filled with surprise, and the response has been tinged with fear. And there have been many words of gentle reassurance.

But today come the wise ones, the Magi, astrologers or Zoroastrians or jugglers or kings or fools - whatever they were, they come from far away, bearing symbolic gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And they are neither fearful nor surprised. Rather than being shocked and amazed about the baby, they are expressly looking for a baby! “Where is this child who has been born?” they ask. Not, “OK, where is the king? Oh, wow, look it’s a baby!”

They were looking for a baby. And when they found him, they were not at all surprised about his age or his class or his living arrangements. They were overwhelmed with joy and they fell to their knees and opened their treasure boxes They found what they were looking for. And their response was overwhelming joy and generosity.

Maybe this is why we call them wise men.

Contrast the reaction of King Herod, the Empire’s man in the capital city. He and all of Jerusalem were filled with fear at the news the Magi brought. His response was to hold himself apart, suspicious, jealous, murderous even in his extreme fear brought on by the news of this child. He cared deeply for his power and his influence - his job and all the stuff that comes with it - and he was terrified at the prospect of someone taking any of it away from him. And so his response was to plot murder.

It’s easy to see this contrast and think, well, duh, be like the Wise Men and not like Herod and all of Jerusalem!

But I suspect most of us are more familiar with fear than we are with joy. We are more acquainted with the feeling of squeezing our hands shut than loosening our grip on our treasure chests. We know that physical sensation that comes from deep inside when we are afraid of losing what we have. We are often not sure what we are looking for but definitely sure that we don’t want to find that it’s about somebody else.

Joy seems like a luxury, something for children or at least the child-like, those who are not burdened with the fears that creep around the edges of our lives, waiting to pounce. Joy seems imprudent, often, and even inappropriate. How can we play our harps and sing songs of Zion when we are in captivity in Babylon? How can we rejoice when there is so much grief and so much pain and so much death and so much anxiety and so little certainty? How can we be generous when we don’t know if there’s going to be enough for us?

We may not plot murder, but we are well acquainted with fear.

But look at what fear does. It makes us suspicious. It makes us stingy. It makes us hold ourselves apart. It makes us mean.

And it makes us unable to experience real joy. The kind of joy that overwhelms, as scary as that prospect might seem, being overwhelmed, which might feel like being out of control. But joy is a gift from God and not something to be afraid of. Good tidings of great joy, the angels said. Joy, joy, joy, goes the Christmas hymn. Joy is also a feeling that comes from deep inside, and it leads not to clenched hands but to open treasure chests. It leads to generosity and it leads to life.

Think of the scene in the 1951 movie of Dickens’ Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge, masterfully played by Alastair Sim, wakes on Christmas morning to find that he is alive and still has time to send a fat turkey to the Cratchett household, to give his housekeeper a raise, to reconcile with his nephew, to live his life in the joy of the knowledge of his salvation. His whole being has changed, his face, his body, his outlook. He giggles, he dances, he is overwhelmed by joy and he opens his famously tight fists and casts his treasure before a little child.

He is overwhelmed by joy.

The wonderful poet Mary Oliver has this to say about joy even in the face of the angst and loss in our lives in her prose poem “Don’t Hesitate” -

She says, “If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”*

Joy is not made to be a crumb.

(*from Swan, Poems and Prose Poems by Mary Oliver, Boston: Beacon Press 2010)

Collect for the Feast of Epiphany

2012-01-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Saturday Morning Movie: The Journey of the Magi

2012-01-07T09:13:00.001-05:00

For those who aren't quite finished with Epiphany yet (like me!), enjoy hearing T.S. Eliot reading his poem "The Journey of the Magi."

They saw the child

2012-01-06T11:47:00.002-05:00

Epiphany Music

2012-01-06T09:36:00.000-05:00

A lively live version of the wonderful Epiphany hymn "Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning" to the Southern Harmony tune Star in the East. The singer is Kathy Mattea.

Visual Morning Prayer: Epiphany

2012-01-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

All the Wise Folk converge on Bethlehem.

Music for Twelfth Night

2012-01-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

This is "Torches, Torches," the 1951 carol written by the British composer (of South African descent) John Joubert and sung by the always wonderful Choir of King's College Chapel.

This version is a little more energetic than other videos I've seen, and the visual with the candles provides the perfect backdrop for the music.

Enjoy your Twelfth Night activities as we prepare for the Feast of the Epiphany tomorrow!

The Twelfth Day of Christmas: I Wonder as I Wander

2012-01-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

"I Wonder as I Wander," a song that was "discovered" by John Jacob Niles, played here by Ruth and Steve Smith on hammered dulcimer and guitar. I love the camera angle that allows us to see just how one plays the hammered dulcimer!

Whatever the murky origins of this song, it is beautiful and, I think appropriate as we approach Epiphany.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Twelfth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2012-01-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Our home made nativity set featuring Peanut Baby Jesus)

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Mediaeval Baebes

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Excuse the tree, but here are the Mediaeval Baebes singing I Sing of a Maiden at a Renaissance fair in Maryland a few years ago. This shows the energy of Medieval dance music that celebrates Mary - "such a lady God's mother be."

Visual Morning Prayer for the Eleventh Day of Christmas: Nativity

2012-01-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Tenth Day of Christmas: Sussex Carol

2012-01-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

From King's College, Cambridge. The lovely Sussex Carol.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Tenth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Clay set from Argentina)

The Ninth Day of Christmas: Breton Carol

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is the Breton Carol, which is played but not sung by Canadian Loreena McKinnett.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Ninth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2012-01-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Windows in the Lady Chapel at The Church of Our Saviour, Atlanta, GA)

The Eighth Day of Christmas: Wexford Carol

2012-01-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, and Natalie McMaster join together to perform The Wexford Carol.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Eighth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2012-01-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Seventh Day of Christmas: Riu Riu Chiu

2011-12-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

The lighting's too harsh and you'll want to turn up the sound a bit, but otherwise this is an excellent rendition of the Spanish carol Riu Riu Chiu performed by the Blacksburg (not sure what state!) High School Madrigals. Great singing and accompaniment and costumes. Enjoy.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Seventh Day of Christmas: Nativity

2011-12-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Olive wood from Jerusalem)

The Sixth Day of Christmas: Bells of Dublin

2011-12-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

No real video here, but enjoy the Chieftans play The Bells of Dublin & Christmas Eve.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Sixth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2011-12-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Raku pottery)

The Fifth Day of Christmas: Some Children See Him

2011-12-29T10:58:00.000-05:00

James Taylor sings Some Children See Him.

I first heard this carol when I was a young child - my parents had a Tennessee Ernie Ford Christmas album with this song on it, and it has always been one of my favorites. I guess hearing it as a child and knowing it was a Christmas song about children's experience made it particularly appealing to me.

Enjoy.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Fifth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2011-12-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

Glazed tiles from Puerto Rico

The Fourth Day of Christmas: Gaudete

2011-12-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

GAUDETE, CHRISTUS EST NATUS - arr. Jim Cooke, The Chamber Choir KameLeon of The Leon Kozminski University and The College of Europe Choir conducted by Katarzyna M. Boniecka during the concert entitled „The Christmas time is back" in The Jesuit Church of St.Stephan in Warsaw in 2011

Music Extra for the Holy Innocents

2011-12-28T10:21:00.001-05:00

This evocative song by Sufjan Stevens obliquely offers wisps of the theme of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, which we commemorate this day.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Fourth Day of Christmas: Nativity

2011-12-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Third Day of Christmas: Balulalow

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

The St Paul's Cathedral Boys Choir sings Benjamin Britten's Balulalow, from Ceremony of Carols.

Visual Morning Prayer for the Third Day of Christmas: Nativity

2011-12-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

(This set is from Haiti)

The Second Day of Christmas: Personent Hodie

2011-12-26T11:09:00.000-05:00

Trond Bengtson - Lutenist

Visual Morning Prayer for the Second Day of Christmas: The Nativity

2011-12-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

(Glazed tiles from Italy)

The First Day of Christmas: Angels

2011-12-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

The First Lady of Soul sings Angels We Have Heard on High during the Racheal Ray show.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:00:00.000-05:00

I am a collector of sacred Christmas music, which I have accumulated over many, many years. The vinyl LPs of Tennessee Ernie Ford and Handel’s Messiah gave way to cassette tapes featuring Johnny Mathis and the Vienna Boys Choir, only to be replaced by CDs of medieval dances and Spanish carols and Celtic harp melodies and Mahalia Jackson singing “Poor Little Jesus Boy, We Didn’t Know Who You Was.”

I’ve got Christmas jazz from Lincoln Center and King’s College choirs singing Cathedral hymns. I downloaded from iTunes a rockin’ Cajun version of “He is born, the Holy Child” sung by the Veggie Tales French Peas in which Philippe and Jean Claude remind us to respond to the news of the birth of Jesus by playing the oboe and bagpipes merrily.

A few years ago I came across a recording of “It Came upon the Midnight Clear” that included a verse I’d never heard before.

The version I know, the one in our hymnal, has four verses.

It begins deep in the night, once long ago, when angels came near the earth with their golden harps and the world stopped for a moment of solemn stillness to hear the angels sing God's message of peace.

The second one tells us that angels still come to fill the sky with unfurled, peaceful wings, still singing heavenly music over a world no longer listening. The third verse notes that the world has suffered for two thousand years, and humans, who are always at war, are not able anymore to hear the love-song and admonishes us to hush our noise and hear the angels sing.

The last verse looks forward to the time when peace will reign over all the earth and everyone and everything will finally sing back to God the song that the angels sang and still sing to us on Christmas night.

The missing stanza, between the verse about war and and the verse about peace, goes like this: "And you, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow - look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing."

I’ve always loved this evocative hymn, with its angels and their unfurled wings coming to us through a mysterious door from heaven to bring God’s news to us in splendid celestial song. I appreciate its recognition of our weariness and the sad fact of the constancy of war and strife that drowns out the angels’ love song. It poignantly reminds us just how much we need a savior.

But it speaks to me even more urgently now, now that I know this verse. Those of us who do not soar and sing but are ourselves bent, not curled over in caring but bent out of shape - distorted - beneath life’s crushing load of fear or sadness or anxiety or loneliness, or lack of every kind - we are bidden on this night to just rest beside our path and listen God’s messengers singing heavenly music.

That’s all. Just stop, and rest, and hear the good news that comes even now on whispering wings, good news that sounds like angels singing over the din of the stock exchange trading floor and domestic disturbances and ear-piercing sirens about this disaster or another, and radios and televisions blaring the voices of angry commentators and advertisements designed to make us feel so bad about ourselves that we will spend our money on things that will surely never buy us peace or happiness. The sounds the whole world now proclaims are the sounds of fear-mongering and strife and constant, incessant hype.

That verse about people bent over under crushing loads speaks to me; I know people like that. I recognize that posture. Perhaps you do, too.

On this night, Jesus, the savior is born in Bethlehem. Nomadic shepherds are taking care of their sheep in the country as they always do, and a huge crowd assembles in the town in obedience to the powers that be, taking up all the available space, as crowds always do. Humble people squeeze into humble quarters, as they always must. All while the Empire moves people around on its political chessboard like pawns, as Empires always do.

And, oh what a great mystery! while people are just going about their business, out of pure love God unobtrusively slips into humanity in a back room somewhere simply to be with us, to be among us as one of us.

And those to whom this message was brought, just some poor guys working the night shift out in a field far away from the glitter of the Emperor’s palace and the din of the marketplace, stop what they are doing to listen to the angels sing, which spurs them to go to see for themselves what God has done.

And then they go back to their regular lives, but they are changed forever; they go back in joyful gladness that God has shown them both the beautiful brilliance of the glorious angels and the simple fact that God is trustworthy.

And so on this night, in the midst of everything, there is good news that can change us forever. That not only do babies (even Baby Jesus!) do what they always do - arrive on their own schedule, convenient or not - and angels do what angels always do - deliver messages from God.

But most wonderfully, that God does what God always does: As God has promised through the prophets of old, God comes to us wherever we are in our lives and abides with us, to be our companion in the way and to give us strength and courage and comfort as we trudge along in ordinary times and extraordinary times, both when life is good and when life seems to be crushing us.

God is not afraid of the Empire or the dark or blaring sirens or shouting people or being born in a stable and sleeping in an animal trough or even dying a humiliating and painful death.

God is with us and God will be with us so that we can be free from fear - fear that makes us bent and distorted and keeps us from being what God created us to be: caring and loving and kind and just and free.

The Empire may make its demands, but tonight the Gospel invites us to simply lay down our burdens for a while and listen to this incredible, joyful news: As God has promised, God has come to us. And God is with us, now and always.

And so, believe it! And be changed forever. And do not be afraid any more.

O Magnum Mysterium

2011-12-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord.

Alleluia!

Merry and Blessed Christmas to you all!

Friday Afternoon Advent Angel Break

2011-12-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Ceramic angels,
rear view.

Morning Psalm for Friday in the Fourth Week of Advent

2011-12-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

Psalm 25:1-14

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; let me not be humiliated nor let my enemies triumph over me.

Let none who look to you be put to shame; let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.

Show me your ways, O LORD, and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.

Remember, O LORD, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting.

Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O LORD.

Gracious and upright is the LORD; therefore he teaches sinners in his way.

He guides the humble in doing right and teaches his way to the lowly.

All the paths of the LORD are love and faithfulness to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your Name's sake, O LORD, forgive my sin, for it is great.

Who are they who fear the LORD? he will teach them the way that they should choose.

They shall dwell in prosperity, and their offspring shall inherit the land.

The LORD is a friend to those who fear him and will show them his covenant.

My eyes are ever looking to the LORD, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

The Story of a Baby

2011-12-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

We are counting down the days until the baby is born to us again in Bethlehem. Soon and very soon, Jesus will be found in the manger with Mary and Joseph, attended by angels and shepherds.

My own baby, my youngest child, was born seventeen years ago today. We brought him home on Christmas Eve. He jokes that having one's birthday so near Christmas is really hard, because Jesus is pretty hard to compete with.

I would never confuse the two - my son and Jesus - but I have for these last sixteen Christmases especially identified with Mary during the holiday seasons. The story of the baby born at Christmas seems more personal to me since I've had my own "Christmas baby."

In celebration, here's a really wonderful and heartwarming (without being schmaltzy and precious) narration/dramatization of the Christmas Story told by the children of St Paul's Church in Auckland, New Zealand.

(P.S. Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!)