Christmas in San Francisco

View from Point Reyes National Seashore

Katrin and I had the great pleasure of spending Christmas in San Francisco this year -- the first time either of us had been away from home and from the usual traditions.

One of the perks of my constant travel is that I can use frequent flyer miles and hotel points for our vacations, so we enjoyed stretching out in the first class cabin on the Delta flight to San Francisco and took in the view of the city from our room at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.

On our first night in San Francisco, Anna arranged for us to go to Berkeley for dinner at Venus and to see "Arabian Nights" at the Berkeley Rep. What an absolutely enthralling play! With minimal staging -- only about $100,000 worth of Persian rugs and beautiful Arabic costumes -- the Rep created a completely captivating world and drew us in.


Photo of Berkeley Rep’s 2008 production courtesy of kevinberne.com

On Christmas Eve we did some Christmas shopping at Gump's, then went to Grace Cathedral for the Festival of Lessons and Carols, a sublime and moving service celebrating what the Dean of the Cathedral, Jane Shaw, calls "our outrageous but firm belief that God yearns to be part of our lives and world." In her welcome statement in the bulletin, Dean Shaw went on to say, "We believe that this really has happened in the person of Jesus Christ and continues to happen in us." Amen.

After the service, we strolled across Nob Hill to the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel for the Christmas Eve buffet dinner at the Top of the Mark. Suffice it to say we left no delicious morsel untasted!

On Christmas Day, we rode the cable cars to Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. Naturally, we chose to hang onto the open cable cars on the day when it poured down rain!

One of the seafood restaurants on the wharf, Cioppino's, was actually open on Christmas, so with Anna we enjoyed their namesake dish and a Dungeness crab pizza (most excellent!).

The next day, Anna planned an outing for us to Point Reyes National Seashore. In addition to the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean, we also literally lost our breath climbing the 303 steps down to the Point Reyes Lighthouse -- and back up again!

The girls were brave to try Drake's Bay oysters on our way from Point Reyes to Petaluma, and I got to practice my oyster shucking skills.

We also visited Larson Family Vineyards near Petaluma, enjoying a taste of their excellent wines (and bringing home four bottles to enjoy later!).


"We Miss You Already," says the sign as we leave Larson Family Vineyards.

On Tuesday, our last day in San Francisco, we met Anna for breakfast, then toured the Legion of Honor's newest exhibit, "Japanesque." It was not only a marvelous look at the making of familiar Japanese prints like Hokusai's Cresting Wave from his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, but the exhibit also traced the influence of that Japanese visual style on French artists of the Impressionist period. From Henri Riviere's Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower to Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, we saw what the French called "Japonisme" shaping their art.



Left: Hiroshige, Gion Shrine in the Snow (Gionsha setchu), from the series Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi), ca. 1833–1834. Right: Henri Riviere, La Tour en construction, vue de Trocadero, pl. 3 from the book Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel, 1902. Color lithograph © 2010 ARS, New York / ADAGP, Paris



After a last look at the Golden Gate Bridge, we headed to the airport. The long flight to Minneapolis and the short hop to Appleton went smoothly, and we're now back at home reflecting on our blessings (and planning our next trip back to San Francisco!).

4 Advent, Thursday

Daily visitation

My mother was pregnant with me at the time of my father's ordination, and she has often described how, when the bishop laid his hands on my father's head and pronounced his name, I gave a great kick inside her.

I thought of that story at my own ordination, where the Old Testament lesson was from Jeremiah. God tells him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jer. 1:5).

Reflecting on Jesus' birth to Mary -- the Incarnation that we celebrate starting tomorrow -- we learn that same lesson. Like Jesus, we are all known to God from before the beginning and throughout our lives. Like Jesus, we will also enter more fully into God's knowledge after our death. As Paul writes, "Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then, I will know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12).

In the collect for this fourth week of Advent we pray "purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation" (BCP 212). Like Mary's visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, whose baby leaped for joy in her womb and who was filled with the Holy Spirit, our "visitation" with God in the Daily Offices offers a chance for the Spirit to speak to us and for new life to leap for joy inside us, too.

As we celebrate Christmas and dwell on the meaning of the Incarnation during the season of Epiphany, I invite you to practice "daily visitation" with God in the Daily Offices. What might the Holy Spirit have to say to you? What new life is in you, just waiting to leap for joy?

St. Thomas the Apostle

Although you have not seen him, you love him

Today's edition of /slantwise/ is brought to you from beautiful Sausalito, California.

Because the hotel where I am staying is across from a marina, I have the words of the song "Brandy" running through my mind, especially the verse about the sailor.

He came on a summer's day
Bearing gifts from far away

But he made it clear he couldn't stay
No harbor was his home

After Jesus' resurrection, according to Christian tradition and legend, Thomas traveled far and wide, even as far as the Indian subcontinent, where the Mar Thoma Church bears his name. I wonder whether Thomas also felt that "no harbor was his home." Whether that's true or not, I do believe that he found a true anchor in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That confidence -- Thomas' unshakable conviction that Jesus is Lord and God -- led to his ministry of witness and evangelism. People coming after Thomas, even though they had never seen Jesus themselves, came to know him as their Lord, too.

We ourselves are the fruits of the witness given by Thomas and the men and women who were the first apostles of the resurrection. Their confidence, their unshakable conviction, has spread the message of Christianity across the world.

"Although you have not seen him, you love him," wrote Peter to his early congregation. "And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-9).

I hope that you, too, in this season of hope, will find your confidence strengthened and your heart made joyful, for through the gifts we have received from Thomas and his companions we have come to know Jesus as our Lord and God.

3 Advent, Saturday

Winter Ember Days

The rubric beneath the Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent doesn't give much away: "Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional winter Ember Days" (BCP 212). What are Ember Days, anyway?

According to the Calendar of the Church Year, the Ember Days are "traditionally observed after the First Sunday in Lent, the Day of Pentecost, Holy Cross Day, and December 13" (BCP 18).

Even church history doesn't shed much light on what the Ember Days are about. F.L. Cross notes in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church that "their early history and original purpose are obscure" (Cross 455). Though they may have begun in the Roman Church as harvest, vintage and seed-time observances, in the Church of England they became associated with times for ordinations.

That's how they are observed in the Episcopal Church today, too. In many dioceses, the four "Ember Weeks" are times for postulants and candidates for holy orders to write to the bishop about their personal, spiritual, and academic formation. After their ordination, clergy may also be required to write the bishop once a year, perhaps during the Lenten Ember Days, to give the same kind of report.

Ordinations are often scheduled during Ember Days -- so it's no accident that in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, our bishop will ordain Jane Margaret Johnson to the diaconate today. I'd be willing to bet that her ordination to the priesthood will happen on or around June 18, during the Ember Days following Pentecost (and her graduation from seminary).

In the Daily Office, occasions like the Ember Days are good times to offer prayers to God not just for the clergy, but "for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you" (BCP 100). All of us have a vocation or "calling" and all of us are responsible by virtue of our baptism to reach out in service to others.

The Ember Days, no matter what their origin, offer us an opportunity to hold one another up in prayer, that through our work and service, God's kingdom may come a little closer.

3 Advent, Thursday

Hearts trained for greed

The lessons appointed for today offer a tight, sharp condemnation.

Both Peter and, before him, Isaiah call their communities to task for failing to live up to their high calling.

Peter warns the new church against false prophets, those whose message runs counter to Jesus' -- they have "hearts trained for greed" and "they will even deny the Master who bought them" (2 Peter 2:14c, 1b). In this, his message is very like Isaiah's.

Isaiah holds up a mirror to the greed of the people of Israel -- as a nation, they are devouring one another, making iniquitous decrees and unjust statutes, turning aside the needy from justice and robbing the poor of their right (Isa. 9:21--10:2).

The people who claim to follow God's will, in both cases, have forgotten that they were bought with a price, that they are to be in a special relationship with God, that their way is not to be the world's way.

And what of us today? We claim to follow Christ, but would that be apparent in the way we act? Are we in fact less greedy than those around us? Our lawmakers love to claim we are a Christian nation, but do our laws -- our decrees and statutes -- actually shelter the needy and give the poor their right? The words of condemnation are for our ears, too.

But our continual Advent hope is for the coming of God's Word:

"So 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 sent it"
(The Second Song of Isaiah, BCP 87)

Now, as then, we need the sharp Word to lay open our hearts -- hearts trained for greed -- and to transform them into grateful hearts, tuned to sing God's praise and to listen to the cry of the poor.

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving," the Psalmist says, "and make good your vows to the Most High" (Ps. 50:14).

2 Advent, Tuesday

Pray without ceasing

I've been reading the books in Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours series -- a contemporary reworking of the Daily Offices into an accessible form -- and especially have enjoyed the introduction she gives to the practice of "fixed-hour prayer," her term for the Daily Office.

She notes that since the earliest days of the Christian church, and even before that in the practices of Jews living in Roman territories, it was the custom to mark the hours of the day with prayer.

As the Roman bells marked the first hour of the day, Prime at 6 am, punctuated the workday at Terce and Sext and None (9, noon, and 3) and closed the day at vespers (6 pm), Jews -- and the early Christians -- said brief prayers to mark the hours.

She also notes that "Christians today, wherever they practice the discipline of fixed-hour prayer, frequently find themselves filled with a conscious awareness that they are handing their worship, at its final "Amen," on to other Christians in the next time zone. Like relay runners passing a lighted torch, those who do the work of fixed-hour prayer do create thereby a continuous cascade of praise before the throne of God" (The Divine Hours 5).

I invite you to raise your voice in that unceasing prayer, whether it's in a formal way through the Daily Office or simply by being mindful as you pray of the "communion of saints" past and present and all around the world who join their voices with yours.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess 5:16-18).

2 Advent, Monday

A nice little juxtaposition this morning.

I began to read Morning Prayer as my first flight of the day was preparing to take off, ignoring the flight attendants' safety demonstration, even though they regularly announce that even frequent fliers should pay attention.

When I got to the Collect of the Day, though, I stopped short. "Give us grace," we pray on the Second Sunday of Advent and throughout the week, "to heed their warnings and forsake our sins" (BCP 211).

Sometimes you need to close the book, open your eyes and ears, and pay attention.

I invite you to take a little time this week just to look and listen. Look for signs of God's steadfastness and encouragement around you. Listen for words of hope, whether they come over the plane's PA system or from some other unlikely source.

"And may the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, through the power of the Holy Spirit" (BCP 102).

1 Advent, Friday

Do so more and more

As Paul wraps up his first letter to the church at Thessalonika, he urges them to continue demonstrating their love for one another and for the wider community of Christians.

"You do not need to have anyone write to you," he says, "for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more" (1 Thess. 4:9-10).

In his commentary on 1 Thessalonians in The Illustrated Bible Handbook, Edward P. Blair notes that, "Christians are to go on becoming, by God's gracious help, what they already are in principle. One does not progress to holiness but in holiness, according to Paul" (Blair 312).

This growth in holiness is Paul's theme -- growth in the face of persecution, of misunderstanding, of idleness and other ethical dilemmas. Paul urges the Thessalonians to stay focused on love rather than controversy, "to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one" (1 Thess. 4:11-12).

Where in your life have you been distracted by controversy or gossip from the life of love and the growth in holiness that you are meant for? How is God calling you today to do more and more?

1 Advent, Thursday

(One) Bride for Seven Brothers

Headmaster: Fetch hither the seven brides for seven brothers.
(Enter two schoolgirls.)
Padre: Right, do you four boys take these two girls to be your seven brides?
Boys: Yes, sir.

-From Monty Python's Flying Circus, 27 Oct 1970

So the Sadducees think they can trap Jesus with a trick question? You remember the story they spin, how the same poor woman keeps being remarried to brothers who keep dying off, and the Sadducees, "those who say there is no resurrection" (Luke 20:27), ask Jesus whose wife she will be in heaven.

But he turns it all around on them, telling them that in heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage, "because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection." Jesus goes on to say that God "is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive" (Luke 20:36-38).

The Sadducees' questions are too small; their scope too narrow. With a word, Jesus turns their gaze, and ours, from the mean concerns of life here on earth toward a glorious vision of life in the presence of God.

The question is, how should we act today, knowing we are meant for life with God? This is a question not about legality but about generosity, not about regulations but about welcome.

"You have spoken well," some of the scribes reply to Jesus (Luke 20:39-40), because they see they have no more questions big enough to ask him. Their eyes have been on the ground too long.

"You will save a lowly people," the Psalmist says in this evening's portion, "but you will humble the haughty eyes" (Psalm 18:28).

Padre: Right, go and do your prep.
(The curtain comes across quickly.)

1 Advent, Wednesday

With my lips will I recite *
     all the judgments of your mouth.

One of the main benefits of "praying the Scriptures" the way that we do in the Daily Office is that the repetition of the antiphons and psalms and lessons and canticles and the Apostles' Creed and the collects gives us, over time, ready access to the language of God.

"The word is very near to you," we read in Deuteronomy. "It is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe" (Deut. 30:14).

"How shall a young man cleanse his way?" the Psalmist asks in today's appointed portion. "By keeping to your words" (Psalm 119:9).

The Daily Office represents a time-tested way to "keep to God's words" by using them in prayer morning and evening, day after day, week after week, season after season. The offices themselves are essentially verses of Scripture arranged around a two-year cycle of readings from the Psalms and from the Bible -- the Psalms repeated every seven weeks, the bulk of the Old Testament read once every two years, and the New Testament twice.

One of the struggles people have when they desire to read more of the Bible is that they need to have some kind of plan -- just plunging in at Genesis often means people bog down in the "begats" when they hit the book of Numbers. The Daily Office lectionary offers one kind of plan, a scheme by which we use the Scriptures in prayer as a way of familiarizing ourselves with the language of God. It's not a study plan, but a prayer plan.

In fact, that's what our whole Book of Common Prayer is -- the prayer plan for leading a Christian life -- but that's a bigger subject for a different time.

For today, ask yourself if you would benefit from having some kind of plan to make sure the "word is very near you ... in your mouth and in your heart to observe it." And let me know if I can help you get started.

St. Andrew the Apostle

"Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ; and brought his brother with him ..."

Who could have imagined on that first Galilee morning that Andrew's act of faithfulness and brotherly love would have led to the presence of Christian believers in nearly every country on Earth?

From that one act -- "He first found his brother Simon and said to him, 'We have seen the Messiah'" (John 1:41) -- is formed the nucleus of the apostles. In that one act, Andrew is superseded by his brother, whom we know as Peter, the Rock on whom Christ's Church will be built. Through that one act, Jesus' ministry starts to bear fruit that will last.

Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, a country a long way from Galilee, and that spiritual connection is a testament to the worldwide spread of Christianity. Even the Episcopal Church in America, which didn't even exist until 1700 years after Andrew met Jesus, has Andrew (and Scotland) memorialized in our shield:

The red and white cross is the St. George's cross of England, and the blue and white saltire cross in the top left corner is the St. Andrew's cross of Scotland.

Though we trace our heritage back to the Church of England, the first bishop in the Episcopal Church, Samuel Seabury, was consecrated by Scottish bishops whose liturgy did not require from him an oath of allegiance to the English king. As a matter of fact, the Communion service in our Book of Common Prayer down to this day is based in part on the service used by the Scottish Episcopal Church.

All of this may sound a long way from Andrew's first encounter with Jesus and his introduction of his brother to the one he knew to be the Messiah, and it is -- but just think, what might come of your introducing one person to Jesus? What might grow and spread from that one introduction?

In one of the prayers for mission at Morning Prayer we ask God to "Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (BCP 100).

Who in your life might like to meet Jesus? Why not do like Andrew did, and introduce them today?

1 Advent, Monday

"Guide our feet into the way of peace ..."

Last night at St. Thomas we enjoyed a special evening of "Kaleidoscopic Worship" focused on the labyrinth. Youth from several churches and adults from St. Thomas and other neighboring churches had a chance to enjoy a meal together, experience two labyrinths, and reflect on what we learned.

One of the labyrinths was traditional, modeled on the Chartres labyrinth. Set up in the chapel, it invited a slow, contemplative pace for some and a breakneck, hairpin-curve "wheeee!" for others. Its winding path led both inward and outward, so we found ourselves doing the dance of courtesy, making way for each other as we passed.

In the auditorium, a more contemporary labyrinth based on the work of reJesus in the UK was laid out on the floor, with a single path leading to various stations where we were invited, through various activities, to contemplate God's love for us and to lay aside preoccupations and worries.

Young people and adults alike remarked at the end of the evening on the unexpected insights they received, and I especially appreciated having the chance to pray quietly while surrounded by people -- a rare opportunity when we tend to be overstimulated when we're together or unsure what to do when we're alone.

My thanks to all the youth and adults who organized the evening. May God continue to guide all our feet into the way of peace as we make our way deeper into this Advent season.

First Sunday of Advent

Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation

Katrin and I enjoy watching what we call "crackpottery" -- TV shows and movies about the Knights Templar and secret Vatican conspiracies, angels and demons, and ancient prophecies. Last night's documentary on Hell was a real corker. Blending some Biblical passages with a heady mix of literature and art, the narrator painted a picture of humanity's enduring preoccupation with judgment and the afterlife.

Over against that preoccupation we have today's corrective passage from the Second Letter of Peter. "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think about slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
Do not be preoccupied with dates and times, he essentially says, "but while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation" (2 Peter 3:14-15).

We cannot know what the end of days will be like -- and, crackpot documentaries aside, we certainly cannot predict when it will happen -- but we do learn from the Scriptures, as we pray them day by day, how God would have us live right now, today, in these in-between times.

I invite you to join me in my Advent Project of praying the Daily Office and reflecting on the Scripture lessons appointed for each day. Together let's give thanks for the patience of our Lord and listen for his word for our life today.

Proper 29, Saturday

http://www.svumc.org/images/beholdwin_lg.jpg

My house shall be a house of prayer ...

We end the Church Year with images of the New Jerusalem in our mind, and with the hope of Advent dawning in our hearts.

The lessons this morning have to do with the cleaning out that has to happen in order to make way for the glory of the New Jerusalem. Zechariah describes the plagues that will befall those nations that don't come into the city to worship, and his book ends on the note that "there shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day" (Zech. 14:21). Luke's gospel recounts Jesus' cleansing of the Temple in the days leading up to his Passion, his symbolic action of driving out the moneychangers to prepare the Temple for a new day (Luke 19:45). And the letter to the Philippians describes that day yet to come, when "at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11).

Since the Middle Ages, our churches have been decorated with stained glass as a way to help us visualize the New Jerusalem, where "the foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel" (Rev. 21:19-20). One of the canticles we use in Morning Prayer describes how

Nations will stream to your light, *
     and kings to the brightness of your dawning.
Your gates will always be open; *
     by day or night they will never be shut.
...
The Lord will be your everlasting light, *
     and your God will be your glory. (BCP 87)

As we close out the old year, and welcome the new, let's keep before our eyes this vision of peace and unity in the new city of God. And then let's work in our own cities to make the vision come true.

Proper 29, Friday

We're winding down the days to the end of the Church Year, staying focused on images of Christ the King.

Once more today we read about the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, this time from Luke's perspective, but the collects appointed for Fridays in Morning Prayer provide a poignant counterpoint to the cries of "Hosanna" that rang around Jesus on that first Palm Sunday.

Every Friday morning we pray to "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" (BCP 99).

Though we proclaim Jesus as Lord, we never lose sight of the cost of that kingship. "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus," Paul writes, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself ... humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:5-8).

We also pray to Christ himself, "who stretched out [his] arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of [his] saving embrace" (BCP 101).

The example that Jesus sets -- the example of complete self-offering -- is what the reign of Christ the King is all about. We belong to a kingdom where we are to "outdo one another in showing respect" (Rom. 12:10) rather than worrying about our own status.

The Friday prayer for mission continues with the desire that Jesus would "so clothe us in [his] spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know [him] to the knowledge and love of [him]" (BCP 101).

To whom do you need to reach out your hands today? What service or respect do you need to offer freely?

Lord Jesus, King of Kings, quickly come. Amen.

Thanksgiving Day

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). 

The canticles appointed for Morning Prayer on Thursday -- even though this is a special Thursday, Thanksgiving Day -- celebrate God's saving work in history and sing out with a voice of praise and gratitude.

I will sing to the Lord, for he is lofty and uplifted; *
     the horse and its rider has he hurled into the sea. (Canticle 8)
.....
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
     we worship you, we give you thanks,
     we praise you for your glory. (Canticle 20)

This American holiday on the Episcopal Church's calendar focuses on gratitude for "the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them" (BCP 246). We are especially grateful on a day like this for America's "amber waves of grain," and we are mindful also of the needs of others.

But even the regular Thursday canticles this morning point our attention back to God, who supplies all our needs -- from deliverance out of bondage, to manna in the wilderness, to Jesus himself, the "bread of God which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John 6:33).

Every Thursday, and really every other day, too, our morning prayers express our gratitude to God ...

"for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of our world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory" (BCP 101).

I hope your celebrations today will remind you of all God's blessings in your life, and that your hearts will be turned to praise.

Let us bless the Lord!
Thanks be to God!

Proper 29, Wednesday

A Collect for Grace

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfillment of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This collect, which we pray most every Wednesday morning, amplifies the passage in the Gospel reading where Jesus says to Zaccheus, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9).

Today, God has kept the sun shining and the world turning for 24 more hours.

Today, God is exercising power on our behalf.

Today, we face temptation and adversity.

Today, we have the chance to participate in God's plan for the world.

When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he says, "In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory" (Eph. 1:13-14).

It's the same story today as when Paul wrote his letter -- we have heard the gospel of our salvation, we have believed, we are marked for redemption, we have the chance to offer praise to God.

In all we do today, Lord God, direct us to the fulfillment of your purpose. Amen.

Proper 29, Monday

"A certain young ruler asked Jesus, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' .... Jesus said to him, 'There is one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the proceeds to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me'" (Luke 18:18-22 passim).

Here's the trouble with this passage from Luke's Gospel: We are all the young ruler. Every single one of us.

What is needful for us is the same now as it was for the young man who comes to Jesus to ask what to do. "I've followed all the commandments," he says. "What more should I do?"

At Jesus' answer he turned away sad, the Gospel says, "because he was very rich." It is the same for us.

No matter where we fall in the socioeconomic scale, no matter what the recession has done to us, each one of us is rich (by any standard of comparison to our neighbors around the world), and each one of us is just as tangled up in our possessions as the young ruler.

I'm a gearhead; ask any one of my colleagues. I love to have the newest BlackBerry -- I'm that guy at the AT&T store the day the new model is released. Others of my colleagues are car nuts, others have children drowning in toys. With our friends, Katrin and I go over the top decorating our houses and throwing parties.

Now, literally selling everything is one way to address the issue. Jesus is very good at cutting through the static and distilling the issue down to its heart. But his goal is not just the young ruler's wealth, it's the young ruler's freedom. Jesus wants him free to love and serve God with all his heart, and the young ruler can't do that while his possessions are dragging him down. None of us can.

As we enter the Christmas-industrial complex, which is already in full steam, ask yourself what preoccupation you can do without in order to be free to love God with all your heart. What can you let go of, what can you not even bring into the house, that will leave you lighter and freer?

This parable reminds me of another story, this one from the Desert Fathers of Egypt, who recount the time the young monk, Abba Lot, came to visit Abba Joseph. "Father," he said, "As far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace, and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?"

Abba Joseph held up his hands, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. "If you want," he replied, "why not become totally flame?"

Why not be free to love and serve God? Why not let go of some of that weight of possessions? Why not become totally flame?

The Last Sunday after Pentecost (Christ the King)

In the tender compassion of our God *
     the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death *
     and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

As we close out the Church Year, we prepare for the coming of Christ the King, "whose will it is," the Collect of the Day suggests, "to restore all things" (BCP 236).

The lessons appointed for Morning Prayer today remind us of the last time people celebrated Jesus as an earthly king -- his triumphal entry into Jerusalem during the last week of his life. At that time, the people placed palm branches on the road and shouted "Hosanna, Lord, hosanna!" just as we did in Psalm 118 this morning.

However, Jesus did not turn out to be the king we hoped for. His first act after the triumphal entry, Matthew tells us, was to make a whip of cords and drive the moneychangers from the Temple (Matt. 21:12), an act calculated to get him hauled up before the authorities. It was the opening act of the drama that concluded, or so we thought, with his crucifixion.

The perspective of a little time, perhaps 40 years or more, brought to the community of Christians an understanding of the kingship of Jesus, the Christ, which was accomplished in his resurrection. "Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison ..." (1 Peter 3:18-19). Through Christ's resurrection, even those who died before have had the way to God opened for them.

In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn has indeed broken on us, "who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death," and we now have constantly before us the example of Christ, whose baptism we share, whose fellowship we participate in, and whose will we make real in the world.

Our high calling -- to restore all things in Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords -- we pray for each morning in the Collect for Mission: "Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom" (BCP 100).

Lord Jesus, quickly come! Amen!

New parish assignment

Now that I am canonically resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Bishop Jacobus has assigned me to serve as deacon at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Neenah/Menasha starting on the First Sunday of Advent, November 28.

I'm looking forward to working with Fr. Osborne and the many, many active parishioners at St. Thomas. Check out the parish website -- there's a lot going on!

I'll also be restarting my Daily Office reflections in Advent, so watch this space ....

Third Sunday in Lent

A couple of gifts have spurred my return to Slantwise on this particular morning.

First was a gift from my mom when I arrived at her house Friday evening, a bookmark that my dad had used that is printed with a verse from the canticle Benedicite, omnia opera Domini (BCP 47).

O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord;
     O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord.

It's tucked into my Prayer Book now, in the page that suggests the canticles to read for Morning and Evening Prayer each day.

The second gift was from a reader here in Florida who asked if I had taken a fast from posting on my blog during Lent. While I hadn't done so intentionally, the fact remains that my last post dates from Ash Wednesday. I appreciate the nudge to get me back into a habit that had started slipping these last three weeks.

So today I bless the Lord for these gifts, and I invite you to bless the Lord for the tokens of the Spirit that you find in your life. As Paul writes to the Romans, "to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6).

May you have new life in Christ, and lasting peace in the presence of his Holy Spirit.

O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord;
     praise him and magnify him for ever.

Ash Wednesday

"And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart,
     and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness." (BCP 90)

These words from the Canticle entitled "A Song of Penitence" are, as the rubrics say, especially suitable in Lent, and on other penitential occasions.

There's an important lesson here for our American self-focus in Lent. "What are you giving up?" we ask each other, forgetting that our Lenten observance is not meant to focus us on our sinfulness, but on God's gracious goodness.

We're turning our eyes toward Easter here, and the example we see in the Risen Christ -- even far off -- is so beautiful that we are ever more conscious of our sins. But in the light of that Easter glory, we make our appeal, "sure of God's gracious goodness."

Whatever practice you have taken on, whatever indulgence you have given up, I pray that this Lent will find you ever more confident in God's goodness, ever more ready to celebrate the Easter feast.

Anskar, Bishop and Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865

Fourteen years ago today, in St. James Cathedral in Chicago, Bishop Griswold laid his hands on my head and made me a deacon in the Church, inviting me and my six fellow ordinands to "make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among you live, and work, and worship" (BCP 543).

In one of the Collects suitable for use on the feast of a missionary, we pray that God will shine in our hearts, "that we also in our generation may show forth your praise" (BCP 248). Apparently, Anskar shone pretty dimly during his first missionary efforts in Scandinavia. As the preacher at our ordination wryly observed, he made no converts at all -- not one. Later generations, however, after they had been converted, looked back and realized that the first time they had seen the light of Christ was in the person of Anskar. He is now the patron saint of Danish and Swedish Christians, sometimes called the "Apostle of the North."

In another Collect from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, suitable for use on Anskar's feast day, we pray to God: "Keep your Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when you have begun a good work, you will bring it to a faithful conclusion."

Not all of us have a chance to see the final result of our labors, but all of us do have the chance to shine in what we do, so that when people look back on our work, they'll see traces of Christ and his redemptive love. It's a high calling, not for the ordained only, but for every single one of us in the Church.

Week of 3 Epiphany, Friday

"Do not neglect to meet together"

Most of us who say the Daily Office pursue the practice privately, saying the services of Morning or Evening Prayer in our homes, or on planes and trains, or in stolen moments when we have a period of waiting.

Few of us, I think, belong to a parish that actually holds daily public services of Morning or Evening Prayer, despite the crystal clear rubric in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP 13). In this day and age, it's a logistical impossibility -- so few of us live anywhere near our parish church, and so few of us can make the time twice a day to go to church.

Those parishes that do have a public Office may offer one service of Evensong or one early Morning Prayer service in a week.

What has been your experience? What "meeting together" supports you in your practice of saying the Daily Office? If you don't have a chance to meet with others to pray, what kind of meeting would you like?

"And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 6:24-25).

Perhaps a blog like this can serve to draw us together, or a Facebook group like the Daily Office Anchor Society (shameless plug!). Perhaps you are able to go on retreat from time to time, or perhaps you can recruit a group of pray-ers at your parish to meet once a week. What would encourage you and those around you to form the habit of daily prayer?

I'm really interested to know, so please speak up if you can.

Blessings!

Week of 3 Epiphany, Wednesday

Your statutes have been like songs to me
     wherever I haved lived as a stranger.

About a year ago, my wife and I bought a second home in Appleton, my 18th house in 42 years -- the result of growing up in an Episcopal priest's family and moving from congregation to congregation, and then of getting used to moving!

Here's my itinerary so far:

Winter Haven, FL
Auburndale, FL - 2 houses
Unadilla, NY
Latham, NY
Copperstown, NY
Charleston, IL
Eastern Illinois University - 4 dorm rooms
Park Ridge, IL - 2 apartments
Lake Geneva, WI - 1 apartment, 1 house
Chicago, IL - 1 apartment
Walworth, WI
Appleton, WI

My current job also makes me a professional "stranger," as I am on the road nearly full-time. According to Delta, I flew 95,000 miles last year, and according to Hilton, I stayed with them 82 times at 57 different hotels last year.

At dinner with a friend in Atlanta two weeks ago, I described my travel routine as monastic. Not only have I pared down my wardrobe and packing to a (not really) ascetic minimum, but I have also found it easier to continue the practice of saying the Daily Office on the road than when I was home more often. The Office helps to give my constant motion a sense of routine and consistency, and the "songs" -- the canticles and Psalms especially -- almost sing themselves from familiarity.

Your statutes have been like songs to me
     wherever I haved lived as a stranger.

You may not have moved quite so often -- though some of you may have moved many more times -- but what gives you stability among the "changes and chances of this life"? What helps you to make home from whatever place you're in right now?

Week of 3 Epiphany, Monday

Lord, open our lips.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews suggests today that Christ has fulfilled the promise made to the people of Israel, and that his entering into heaven as a high priest means that the Temple worship of Israel -- a mere copy of the heavenly offering -- is no longer necessary.

The distant relationship between God and the people of Israel, mediated by the priests of the Temple, is replaced by a personal relationship mediated by Christ himself.

Quoting Jeremiah 31:33-34, he writes,

"I will put my laws in their minds,
     and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
     and they shall be my people." (Heb. 8:10)

The Daily Office is one way for us to claim the promise of a personal relationship with God and ensure that God's laws are in our minds and "written in our hearts."

The steady repetition of the Psalms and canticles, the ongoing round of Scripture reading, the weekly rhythm of Collects and prayers, work in us the familiarity with God's word that is the first part of his promise.

Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Week of 2 Epiphany, Thursday

"Peace, Be Still" by Chinese artist He Qi

Anchored in living water

From the letter to the Hebrews, we read that "we have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" in Jesus, who takes his place in heaven as a priest forever (Heb. 6:19).

In the story from John's Gospel, we read the exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. He asks her for water, then in response to her question says that he can give her living water -- "those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty," he says. "The water I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life" (John 4:14).

We are anchored in living water -- we have within us, as we take the words of Jesus to heart, a well of consolation and strength always available to us. Some speak of "soaking in the Word" as we read the Scriptures in the Daily Office. The words of the Psalms and canticles, the lessons from Scripture, the daily Collects, all become familiar, and when we need them, they are there. The more and more we pray these words, the more they form a deep and nourishing well in us.

But we also have to be up and abroad in the world, and the "living water" we travel across is often tempestuous and turbulent. Having the words of Jesus deep within us also means we have an anchor, though it is more like we have Jesus himself calming the wind and the seas -- we are not stuck, we are free to move, but we do not have to fear that we will be capsized.

We cannot always be still in prayer, but wherever we go, we can trust in Jesus, the "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul."

Week of 2 Epiphany, Tuesday

Back to the basics

Today we get a short course in the basics about God, a useful corrective to some of the misguided venom spewed by people like Pat Robertson lately.

In the letter to the Hebrews, we read that not all of us are as mature in Christ as we think. "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food" (Heb. 5:12).

In the Gospel of John, we get the milk we need -- "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17). There's a reason this is the single most popular memory verse in Sunday School.

The God we believe in has definitively revealed that his purpose is love, love so extreme that it will go to any length to reach us. "For I am convinced," writes Paul, " that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38).

Though some of us "by this time ought to be teachers," too many of us still subscribe to the notion that God condemns, hates, harms, reviles, punishes. None of these is true. If we believe these things, we clearly are not ready for solid food, because "solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained to distinguish good from evil" (Heb. 5:14).

What we experience as God's judgment and condemnation is the sight of our petty hate and jealousy in the face of God's overwhelming love, the reality of our evil deeds in the face of God's pure goodness, the darkness of our sin in the face of God's eternal light.

We are convicted by the Holy Spirit because it is self-evident that we have not met Love with love.

So let's get back to basics, and be sure we drink the recommended daily allowance of milk -- which in the Episcopal Church means the Daily Office or Daily Devotions with their readings from Scripture -- so that our faculties are trained to recognize and respond to God's gracious, relentless love.

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

The lessons this morning emphasize the calling of the first apostles, or witnesses, to Jesus' ministry and the gifts that the apostles and the early Church received from the Spirit -- gifts that would build the body and strengthen it to serve.

Unity and building up are the two characteristics of Christ's body that are held before us today.

The unity of the Church derives from our baptism. Each of us, in baptism, dies to the old life of sin and rises to new life in fellowship with Christ. There is no truer source of unity than our identification with Christ in baptism and our ongoing fellowship in communion with one another. Nearly everything else we try to add into the mix is about institutional politics and power, not about being one in the Lord.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit also work against politics and power, since they are clearly identified as building up the whole body, not just individuals within it.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers -- all of us who exercise those gifts (and we all do exercise them in various ways) are to use them "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13).

We need structures in our community to organize the various gifts and talents we possess, but the test of those structures is whether they serve to build up each member or to glorify just a few. And the building up is meant to equip all of the members to serve, not just to create a safe haven of like-minded people.

How do you help promote unity and build others up for service? What help do you still need that will build you up into the mature Christian you are called to be?

Week of 1 Epiphany, Friday

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts ..." (Heb. 3:15).

Episcopal Relief and Development

Haiti Project - Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee

Google Links - Haiti Earthquake Relief

"Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen" (Collect for Mission - BCP 101).

Week of 1 Epiphany, Thursday

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).

Last night, as I watched bits of the news about the earthquake in Haiti, I came across Bill O'Reilly suggesting that aid to Haiti would be wasted because the government is corrupt and the money would never make it to the people who need it. His tone was knowledgeable, as if to say, "I've traveled there, so I know what it's really like." He also suggested that liberals with their reliance on a nanny state would be falling into the same old wasteful trap.

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

The question is not new in our generation -- it's the same old cynicism masquerading as wisdom. Can anything good come from liberals? Conservatives? From Afghanistan? Iraq? Mexico? From the elderly? From the young? From women? From men? From gays? From lesbians? From atheists? From the religious?

It's easier to write off people and nations as a loss than it is to hope -- and more importantly, to work -- for something good.

Our conviction as Christians must be the same as our Lord's, that no one is irredeemable, that no one is a hopeless case, that no one is beyond the pale. We follow the Christ "who stretched out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace" (BCP 101). There are no qualifications here, no exceptions -- everyone.

Now, granted, we ought also to be smart about how we help and ensure that our efforts and contributions are being put to good use, but to succumb to hopelessness and wallow in cynicism is to put the lie to our Lord's extraordinary compassion toward us. And it puts the lie to our claim to his name.

Can anything good come from Nazareth? Of course!

Week of 1 Epiphany, Wednesday

Please donate as generously as you can to help the people of Haiti.
Follow the link on the right hand side of this page to go to the Diocese of Milwaukee's Haiti Project and donate to their Emergency Fund, or go to er-d.org to support Episcopal Relief and Development.
This is the same collection for the saints in distress as Paul talks about in his various letters. Please help in whatever way you can.

Week of 1 Epiphany, Tuesday

The Church Year is arranged in two cycles around the feasts of Christmas and Easter. In each cycle, we spend some time preparing for the feast, celebrate the feast itself, then spend some time understanding what just happened.

The preparation we do in the seasons of Advent and Lent. Christmas and Easter we celebrate for 12 days on the one hand, and for 50 days on the other. And after each of the feasts, we enter a period known as Ordinary Time.

After Holy Week, which often culminates in baptisms at the Easter Vigil, we celebrate the Great 50 Days of Easter and the power of the resurrection life. In the long, green stretch of Ordinary Time after the Day of Pentecost, we work out the implications of our baptism for our daily lives.

In just the same way, after the 12 Days of Christmas, which culminate in Epiphany and in our celebrating the Baptism of Jesus, we work out what it means for the world that God has entered it in such a way. We also rehearse the many ways that Christ, "the pioneer of our salvation" (Heb. 2:10), is made manifest in our ordinary lives. These manifestations, or epiphanies, are the subject of this green season.

In the Daily Office, we can tell we've hit Ordinary Time. On Monday morning, we started back at Psalm 1. We've resumed the course reading of Scripture, this time with the Letter to the Hebrews and the Gospel of John. It's kind of calm after the relative drama of Advent antiphons and Christmas feast days.

We call it Ordinary Time -- it's really anything but. All our daily lives are shot through with the presence and power of God. What we do in the long stretches of Ordinary Time is keep ourselves awake and attuned to the signs of God's activity, even as we relax a bit from the hustle and bustle of the feasts and return to our regular work.

Bread and Butter

"I am the bread of life," Jesus says in today's Gospel reading (John 6:48).

This or that activity is our "bread and butter," we say, especially when we talk about a fundamental task or attitude that also contributes the most to our success.

My bread and butter are presenting software solutions and preaching (tasks) and traveling lightly (an attitude).

What I do -- whether it's for my company's hospital clients or for the members of my congregation or for the readers of this blog -- is articulate a vision that I hope will capture other people's imaginations, and how I do it (when I'm at my best) is with a light heart and an even lighter carry-on bag.

The light of comprehension during a presentation, or a good question at coffee hour, or a thoughtful argument from a colleague ... the smile or joke from someone I encounter at the rental car return or the TSA security line ... these tell me that the bread and butter tastes good, like manna was supposed to taste.

What are your "bread and butter" activities? How do you invite people to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8)?

The Eve of the Epiphany

I hadn't meant this to be a reflection on my father, but here goes.

The lessons this evening anticipate the Feast of the Epiphany, or to use its longer name, the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

In both Isaiah and Romans, we read that God is drawing the Gentiles into a new relationship just as he previously drew the Jews into a special covenant relationship. According to Isaiah, God even says, "I will take some of them as priests and as Levites" (Isa. 66:21).

My father was a priest of the Episcopal Church, devoted to its Catholic heritage but open to the Spirit's leading. He and my Mom were active in the charismatic and renewal movements of the 70s -- when he died, I inherited a green gingham stole with yellow pom-poms and felt "Alleluias" from that period -- but he was above all a priest of the "faith once delivered to the saints."

Being open to the new wind of the Spirit is hard work, because the latecomers invariably don't appreciate our traditions and don't understand our preoccupations. Taking new members seriously is just as hard in the workplace as it is in church -- new staff just don't get how hard we struggled last year, and their enthusiasm is embarrassing (and challenging) to us.

My father remained open to the movement of the Spirit because, in the words of the Collect for the Epiphany, he saw Jesus' glory "face to face." His bishop even remarked in his funeral sermon (has it already been three years?), that for my father, death was nothing to be feared because it meant he would see Jesus.

During Epiphany, in honor of my father, I intend to look for the face of Jesus in the people I meet as I travel, and I invite you to do the same wherever you "live, and work, and worship" (BCP 543).

What new relationship is Jesus inviting you -- and all of us -- into in this new year? Who are you supposed to welcome -- at work or in church -- into a new relationship with our gracious Lord?

Join me in seeking to see Jesus face to face, won't you?

Week of 2 Christmas, Tuesday

Two very different images of clothing in today's readings.

From the Gospel of John, we read the dramatic story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, another of the "signs" of Jesus' divinity. Jesus cries, "Lazarus, come out!" -- and he comes out of the tomb still wrapped in his burial shroud (John 11).

And from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we read the passage about putting on the whole armor of God, clothing oneself for the spiritual battle against "the cosmic powers of this present darkness" (Eph. 6:12). We are to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace, and arm ourselves with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

My mental image of this chapter in Ephesians dates to my elementary school days in Auburndale, Florida, when my parents dressed my brother and me in the whole armor of God for a church pageant -- I only really remember the milk-jug helmet and the tin foil-plated shield!

Clothing is a constant theme in Morning Prayer, where we regularly pray in the Suffrages that God will "clothe your ministers in righteousness" (BCP 97), and in one of the Collects for Mission we pray to Christ "so to clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you" (BCP 101). Our clothing is not for defense from the world, but for outreach to the world.

There's a reason that the clothing of monks and nuns is called a "habit." It signifies a new identity which involves not just one's outward appearance but the inward embrace of new behavior -- and a willingness to extend that embrace to the stranger -- as one seeks more and more to imitate Christ.

Tin foil optional.

Week of 2 Christmas, Monday

This morning we begin the transition from Christmas to Epiphany -- from stories about the birth of Jesus, the Light coming into the world, to the first manifestations of that Light during his ministry on earth.

The story from John's gospel of the man born blind (John 9) is one of the "signs" of Jesus' divinity -- inside the story is Jesus' assertion "I am the light of the world," where the "I am" echoes God's own self-disclosure to Moses.

But here's where we turn the corner with Jesus: the Great I AM has come into the world in the person of Jesus, and in a demonstration of that divine power Jesus has healed a man born blind. Problem is, the healing has resulted in the man's expulsion from the synagogue and has estranged him from his family. So what happens?

Jesus comes back to find him.

The Son of God, the Light of the World, the Word made flesh, comes back to find the man and invites him into a new community, completing his inner healing just as he had performed an outer healing.

This is extraordinary -- where Reynolds Price rightly observes that in John's gospel Jesus heals because he can, as an example of divine power -- we also see in the conclusion of the story a second movement of tenderness which ensures that the man continues in relationship.

God's power is truly "made perfect" in weakness, as Paul suggests to his church in Corinth (2 Cor. 12:9).

What has caused you to be estranged? What weakness in you cries out for a companion? Where will Jesus find you when he comes back to look for you?

The Holy Name

What's in a name?

My name represents, as many people's do, the union of two families through marriage and the birth of a child. I am named Rodger after my maternal grandfather and Lindsay after my father and my paternal grandfather.

Two of the men I am named for were priests in the Episcopal Church, so I am definitely part of the family business. I think about them often as I build my own life of work and ministry.

Today we celebrate the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose naming represents a union of a much higher order -- the joining of God and his beloved people in the Word made flesh. Matthew's gospel story tells us that Joseph heard in a dream that he should name the child Jesus, "for he will save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Matthew also notes that this was to fulfill a prophecy from Isaiah that the child would be named "Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us" (Matt 1:23).

Saving us from our sins and demonstrating in his body God's presence with us -- this is truly Jesus' family business. But it is also our business. Jesus is asked at one point about his family, and he replies, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? ... Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matt. 12:48-50).

We are meant to claim Jesus' Holy Name as our own, to embrace his identity as a child of God, and to take up the family business of "restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP 855).

May we each enjoy success in our own work and in the "family business" in this Year of our Lord 2010.

Happy New Year!