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.