Elsewhere in this ...Love of Mike, you will find encouragement to be with us for worship during Holy Week and Easter, and I whole-heartedly hope you will.
I wonder . . . Will you be surprised by Easter? ...surprised by more than Easter comes as early as possible in 2008?
We love the Gospel story of Jesus’ Resurrection and the Easter hymns. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be amazed again by them?
We live in a world that calls us to believe in self and science. We swim against-the-stream to believe in faith and in God. How can we believe in the resurrection in an age of unbelief? (Perhaps the difficulty of that question can prepare us to recover the surprise of Easter...)
Can we break through the routine and rediscover what those women in Matthew 28:1-10 felt when they found the tomb empty on the first Easter?
Easter is God’s promise that He is always with us, ready to roll back the stone from the doors of tombs so that we can live hopefully in a hopeless world. God is always with us.
Last Easter, I told the story of going up Pacific View Drive with a parishioner to visit the grave of her beloved. While there we saw a woman kneeling before two gravestones and heard her praying aloud.
When we, and she, finished, that woman got up, looked at us, and volunteered: "I come here all the time. You see, my husband and son are buried here. I spend time with God, and, in a sense, with them, too. I don’t want ever to forget them or them to forget me. I know that they are with the Lord. I read in the Bible that ‘as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.’ (1 Cor. 15:22). And I believe that to be true. When I see them: my Lord and my God, and my husband, and my son, ...we sure won’t be strangers."
As we walked away, my friend, our parishioner, said to me, "I’m sorry, Peter, but that’s the best sermon I have ever heard!"
Anyone who goes to the cemetery to visit their child, like Mary in the Easter Gospel and that wonderful woman at Pacific View, lives in a "Good Friday world".
But just up our street, that woman allowed God to break through her grief and comfort her.
She knows that Christ is risen. She lives as an Easter Christian in a Good Friday world. She understands that there is Life beyond our body-boundness. She shares the love of her husband and son across that boundary and looks forward to "the stone" being rolled away one more time.
This Easter I hope that God will plant in your heart remembrance of the empty tomb and the hope of the open tomb, and that God will help you to live as an Easter Christian, surprised by joy.
February 2008
When the observance of Lent began in the fourth century it was viewed as a season for a spiritual tithe: forty days
and forty nights is about one-tenth of our leap year.
Our word "Lent" comes from the Old English word, "lencten", which meant "springtime. By the eleventh century English Christians adopted the practice of spending the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve (excluding Sundays, of course, as Sundays are always feast days, always the "Day of the Resurrection") engaged in the disciplines you will find on page 265 of our Book of Common Prayer.
Lent is a season of pilgrimage and spiritual growth focused on preparation for our Easter celebration.
For me, “Lent” is
time for getting back to basics;
time to “make time” for God;
time to s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n a bit our frantic pace of pursuing, protecting and perspiring over
possessions, power, and prestige;
time to strip away the masks under which we live daily
and come face-to-face again with who we really are –-
with Whose we really are;
time to be silent, time to reflect.
Lent is a time for “spring cleaning”;
time to “take out the garbage” and start fresh;
time to “let the sunshine in” to some of the dark corners of our lives;
time to rid ourselves of some of the “clutter” and “trash” filling our spiritual lives;
time to “open the windows” of lives too often shut tight to God and to neighbor
and let the breath of God’s Spirit breathe “fresh air” in and through us.
Lent is time for “spring planting”;
time for “the tough plowing” to break up the clods and open the ground for the seed of God’s Word;
time for “receiving the seed” and letting it establish itself deep within us,
develop tenacious roots, be nourished, grow, and produce that for which it was made.
During Lent, make an extra effort: to build time into each day for prayer and meditating on God’s Word; to gather regularly for worship, on Sunday mornings and to take advantage of extra opportunities for worship and learning together with others in Lent; and to do some "spiritual housecleaning" and "spring planting" that you might be refreshed and renewed as a true follower of Jesus the Christ.
In Christ,
The Millennium Development Goals have been in our hearts and on our minds for over a year.
The MDGs are a series of eight commitments by our United States and other governments to end the global poverty that will kill one of God’s people every 3.5 seconds of every day this year. Please, resolve to do whatever you can about these goals in 2008.
Passion: Ask what the passion is that makes you want to reach out beyond yourself. What is the passion that wells up inside when you see the image of God that is in each person being degraded?
Education: Learn everything you can discover about your passion and teach others so that their hearts can be moved as your heart has been moved.
God’s call: Recommit to the renunciations, adhesions, statements of belief and The Baptismal Covenant in our “Book of Common Prayer”, pages 302-305. God’s call is where your passion and the world’s deep needs meet.
Advocacy: Learn who your government representatives are and let them know who you are. Write, telephone and email them regularly. Let them know that if they want your vote they need to care about what you care about.
Giving: If we are to remedy the incredible inequalities between rich and poor on this planet, we are going to have to learn to follow Christ’s model of greatness that comes from service and generosity.
Travel: When you travel, enjoy ... and broaden your mind and deepen your heart. Look for ways to help and heal.
Relationships: Seek out people from other places in the world. Meet God in people who are very different from yourself.
And, first and foremost, pray: Prayer about the Millennium Development Goals might begin:
"God, use me.
You know this brokenness in the world.
Open me up.
Use me to help heal it.
Use me to love this broken world."
Isn’t prayer the best way to begin a new year?
Are you looking for Christ this Christmas?Are your eyes searching the crowds, hoping expectant lto find the one who can save us, and our nation, and our world?
It is so easy to get caught up in other "stuff" this month.
We want so badly to get just the right presents for everyone, and to get the perfect tree, and to have the house look just right. If we’re blessed, we run out of money before we run out of friends. We circle the mall looking vainly for a parking place and we get frustrated, or tired, or sick, and we are tempted to say with ol’ Scrooge, "Bah, Humbug!" Or, we identify with the little girl who liked Santa Claus better than Jesus; she explained, "You have to be good for Santa only at Christmas, but you have to be good for Jesus all the time!"
Do you expect to see Christ this Christmas? ... shopping? ...at home? ...in church? Or is Jesus just 2000-year-old history, the human life of God who has come and gone?
If we want to find Christ at Christmas, where would we look? If we saw him, what would we do?
Here’s a story that I hope will give us a clue:
The church was getting ready for the Christmas Pageant. We were a little concerned about Bob because he usually managed to botch things up. He was given the role of the innkeeper because all he would have to do was say two words, "No room!" The big night came. All the children gathered in All Angels Court . . . Joseph stepped forward and said, "Mary is pregnant. Do you have a place where we can stay?" Bob said, "No room!" Joseph ad-libbed, "But we have no place to go. Mary is about to have a baby." Bob looked at Mary, and his chin began to quiver. How could he turn them away, he thought, but his line was "No room!", so he said it one more time. With that Joseph and Mary turned and started to walk away. Bob stood it as long as he could, then he called after them, "Wait! Don’t go! You can have my room!"
With that, I believe, Bob found Christ that Christmas.
Don’t we all imagine how well we would have treated Jesus if we had been in Bethlehem the night of his birth if we had been the innkeeper? We would have given Joseph and Mary the best room in the house, room service gratis and the best doctors. Well... we cannot do that. That night is gone forever.
But hear the words of Jesus, the man, after that babe in the manger grew up: "You will wonder, ‘When was it we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you something to put on? When was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you’. I say to you, ‘Inasmuch as you have done such good to one of the least of God’s children, you have done it to me. Inasmuch as you have not done good to the least of God’s children, you have not done good to me’." (Matthew 25:31-46)
So, beloveds, you see... We don’t really have to look for Christ this Christmas. If we are doing God’s work, being God’s people, God will find us and bless us.
May the blessings of God-in-Christ be with you this Christmas!
This is the month when we set one “Day” aside for “Thanksgiving”.
Of course, we should give “thanks” each and every day!
I hope you heard me preach on the “one who returned to give thanks” Sunday (see Luke 17:11-19) in the middle of last month. Once again I emphasized the importance of being optimistic and positive and how essential it is to count our abundant blessings and say “Thank you!”, “Good job!”, “You look nice!”, and “I love you!” whenever we can.
I asked when you last thanked God for clean water to drink and the ability to breathe fresh air. I gave thanks for those who extend themselves mightily to make our Christian community so wonderful: worship leaders, Tim and our music makers, child care-givers, in-office helpers, and educators. I gave particular “Thanks!” to, and for, those who help make our campus so beautiful: Mike Ortt, Don Nelson, Larry Spang, Verda Schroeder, Myrna Ireland, Matthew Valentine Poska, and our Sextons, the Westroms. “Thanks!” to those who made our patronal festival of Saint Michael & All Angels so rememberable: (The Rev’d) Martha Korienek, Teri and the Corbets, Louise and the Stovers.
“Thanks!” to those who made honoring Saints Francis and Clare and our Stewardship Supper so special: Joan Short, Richard Alegre, Frances Fukuda, Ray & Monty Pentz and Julie Pentz Patterson. “Thanks!” to all who pledge time, talent and treasure for continuing ministry in, and from, this Parish Church.
Now, I hope you will come worship with us on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, at 10:00 a.m. We will celebrate the Holy Eucharist singing the great hymns for that Day: “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing”, “Come, ye thankful people, come”, “Now thank we all our God”. Hear a homily/sermon on John 6:25-35, “Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life’.” Read George Washington’s 1789 “Thanksgiving Proclamation” and Abraham Lincoln’s “Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day” from October 3, 1863; copies of both will be available as will copies of prayers to use at meals.
Here is a lovely poem one parishioner gave me after she received it for Thanksgiving Day last year from a girl in her prayer group:
Thanks to God for my Redeemer, Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory, Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, Thanks for dark and dreary fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten, Thanks for peace within my soul!
Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for all Thou does supply!
Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure, Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure, Thanks for love beyond compare!
Thanks for roses by the wayside, Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside, Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, Thanks for heavenly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow, Thanks thru all eternity!
For those of us who are a little less reverent, here’s a favorite Thanksgiving story:
A young man named Peter received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary; every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. Peter tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to clean up the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally, Peter had enough and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. Bad went to worse. In desperation, Peter grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer.
For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then, suddenly, there was total quiet; not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, Peter quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto Peter’s outstretched arms and said, “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I full intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
Peter was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, “May I ask what the turkey did?”
Let’s count our blessings and give “Thanks!”
OCTOBER 2007
On Friday, September 14th, Holy Cross Day, when we pray the wonderful Collect at the top of BCP 244, Don and Frances & I flew from our John Wayne Airport to Will Roger’s World Airport in Oklahoma City for the consecration and seating in St. Paul’s Cathedral of Ed Konieczny (Ko-nesh-nee) as the Seventh Bishop of Oklahoma. (Of course, 7 is the number of another famous Oklahoman, Micky Mantle!)
That evening we were privileged to hear our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev’d Katharine Jefferts Schori speak in the Cathedral; she was positive and optimistic about our Episcopal Church, engaging in response to questions and comments, and thoughtful as the professor she is. ++Katharine truly impressed Frances ...which is difficult for any clergyperson to do!
On Saturday at the Freede Wellness and Activity Center, homecourt for the Oklahoma City University "Stars", as The Rev’d Dr. Edward Joseph Konieczny was ordained Bishop, I served as one of two "Attending Presbyters", presenting Ed his pectoral cross, Episcopal ring (which I handed off to his wife Debbie who put it on his right hand), miter (headdress), crozier (pastoral staff), and cope. As Deborah Hogue, the wife of Ed’s other "Attending Presbyter" said, "Peter, you and Kelsey were Ed’s ‘bridesmaids’"; I responded, "Yes, and it was an honor to be!" Ed’s Bishop in Colorado, +Rob O’Neill preached before Ed was consecrated by PB Schori, Bishop O’Neill, Bishop Ed Little of Northern Indiana (and formerly of St. Joseph’s, Buena Park, the Konieczny family’s home parish), and the retiring Sixth Bishop of Oklahoma, +Bob Moody.
On Sunday, I was privileged to preach at the 9 and 11am celebrations as +Ed was seated in his chair at St. Paul’s Cathedral (where our own Fr. Ron Bauer was ordained Deacon). I told several stories about my experiences with Ed; I have many since we have been friends since he served his Ministry Study Year with us in 1990-‘91. I said my prayer is that his episcopacy will focus on "the secret of Jesus" which is "our longing for incarnation, our longing to be enfleshed" and that my hope for him and the people of Oklahoma is love because "only love lasts forever", "only love can save us", and "love has to take on flesh or it is not love".
No visit to Oklahoma City would be complete without spending time at the site of the April 19, 1995 terrorist attack which took 168 lives and injured over 800. Several times we visited the National Memorial, Gates of Time, Reflecting Pool and Field of Empty Chairs where the Murrah Federal Building once stood. Most moving!
It was a weekend I will always remember with gratitude.
On September 30th we will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone for our sanctuary.
This stone is very visible in the northwest pillar at the entrance to our wonderful worship space. Tim Getz, our Minister of Music, will provide special offerings at both eight and ten o’clock worship services that morning. Bishop Bob Anderson will be here during worship at ten o’clock to confirm and receive.
At the time of writing this, Louise Stover (who first noted that this is the 40th anniversary of the laying of our cornerstone), Teri Corbet, our Minister of Religious Education, and Richard Harrington, Chair/Vestryperson for our Fellowship Commission, are working on making September 30th memorable.
Someday, there will a booklet with the history of Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Parish Church in Corona del Mar. For now, here is a brief review of our history before l967:
The impetus to start an Episcopal community in Corona del Mar was the result of the increasing growth of the City of Newport Beach from a vacation and tourist center to a year-round residential city in the 1950s.
St. James’ Parish, which began in 1921 and is located in the harbor area of Newport Beach, was affected by this growth: St. James’ School was over-crowded and turning away students; traffic to, and parking at, Via Lido was increasingly difficult for families living in Corona del Mar.
In November 1957 the Vestry of St. James requested a land parcel in Corona del Mar from the Irvine Company and in July 1958 a 5.04 acre parcel located just above Fifth Avenue at the head of Marguerite Street was made available to relocate St. James’ School and to establish a new mission church.
A "Loyalty Dinner" held on September 14, 1958 produced $128,000 in three-year pledges and gifts of support. Bishop Francis Eric Bloy and the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles gave approval for the mission in February 1959, and the following month land north of Fifth Avenue between Jasmine and Narcissus streets was purchased. St. James’ Vestry called The Rev’d Edward Powell Allen, Curate at St. Luke’s Parish Church in Long Beach, to be the Vicar of the parochial mission as well as Chaplain and instructor in sacred studies at the Day School. Twelve parishioners from St. James were appointed to form a Mission Council.
The name "Crown of Glory Episcopal Church", based on 1 Peter 5:4b- "you will win the crown of glory that never fades away", was rejected by Bishop Bloy in favor of one of three: "The Church of the Resurrection", "The Church of the Transfiguration" and "Saint Michael & All Angels". According to Dr. Hank Riedel, our name was chosen by the committee because "it has the fewest letters in it and would cost less to put on signs and stationery"!
After considering the banquet/bar room of Villa Marina, which used to sit at the entrance to Balboa Island, as a possible site the first worship service was held in the Fellowship Hall of the Corona del Mar Community Congregational Church on June 19, 1960. [We have since returned similar blessings to Newport Center United Methodist, Saint Mark Presbyterian and Saint Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Churches.]
For fourteen months, worship took place in that "Upper Room" on Heliotrope Avenue at 8:00 a.m. on Sundays, with an average attendance of fifty. Sunday School classes were held, and other Mission programs initiated, in parishioners’ homes.
Fr. Allen conducted worship on September 10, 1961 at the new campus at Fifth and Marguerite. In addition to the chapel, that campus included an administration building and six classrooms for the School. Mission activity accelerated with two Sunday worship services at 8:00 AM, with attendance between 8 and 20, and 10:00 AM, with attendance around 100-110. There were up to ninety children in the Sunday School. Music was provided by an active choir and an "antique pump-organ". Opportunities for the memberships’ worship (also, initially at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesdays), study, fellowship and service characterized the early years of the Mission Church’s organization.
The first Annual Meeting of Saint Michael & All Angels on January 16, 1962 recorded one hundred thirty-one communicants and eighty-five families.
Tensions arose at this stage of development of the School and the new Mission. Membership in Saint Michael & All Angels plateaued, and St. James’ School had financial difficulties with cost increases, decreased enrollment, and personnel problems. In January 1964 a group of St. James’ School parents petitioned St. James’ Vestry for permission to operate the School as an independent private school if they would underwrite the costs of operation. On February 2, 1964, St. James’ Vestry transferred school administration to an independent school board which would provide all costs of operation; this was done with permission of the Bishop, and the school was to be called "Harbor Episcopal School".
1964-‘65 were years of great uncertainty as community pressure for a "Corona del Mar Freeway Plan" would have required the State Division of Highways to purchase the property occupied by the Mission and School for the right-of-way for rerouting Pacific Coast Highway traffic. Groundbreaking classes for UCI were held in September 1965 and that same month the Irvine Company paid St. James’ Vestry $384,000 for the Fifth and Marguerite property and offered a new site to accommodate both the church and the School at the top of Marguerite Avenue on Pacific View Drive. St. James’ Vestry divided the property between the Mission and the School. Harbor Episcopal School was then administered by an independent school board which traded their portion of gifted land for a site nearby where they developed their campus for "The Harbor Day School". The Mission took our present 3.3 acre site.
Fr. Ed Allen resigned in 1966 to become the first Episcopal Chaplain at UCI; he served in that capacity for over ten years, remaining in the community as a member of Saint Michael & All Angels. At the Sixth Annual Meeting on January 17, 1967, presided over by The Rev’d Canon Douglas Stuart, reports indicated that the Mission was self-supporting with receipts greater by $25,000 than disbursements and a surplus of $3,000.
May 10, 1967 was a great day as The Rt. Rev’d Robert Claffin Rusack, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles, installed The Rev’d John Rogers Davis as the new Vicar and officiated at the ground-breaking for a new sanctuary at the new {present!} site. Work began in August and the cornerstone was actually laid on Sunday, October 22, 1967.
(On January 8, 1968, Fr. Davis proudly announced that Saint Michael’s Mission had achieved new status as Saint Michael & All Angels’ Episcopal Parish Church with its own Vestry and Rector; the Program & Budget for 1968 was $43,020. Our first Rector, Fr. Davis, first celebrated worship in our new sanctuary on April 14, 1968 - Easter Day!)
I am especially looking forward to seeing you on September 30th 2007!
"You are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens
with the saints and also members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone."
Ephesians 2:20
AUGUST 2007
The first half of this reflection/rant as to whether or not tolerance is enough appeared in July when I began by noting that I had been to Aldrich Park at UCI with my Rabbi, Mark Miller of Temple Bat Yahm, for a midweek noontime opportunity to “Stand Together for Tolerance,” an event sponsored by the UCI Academic Senate to affirm that people of different faiths and spiritual practices are safe and welcome to practice their religions and to support the right of free expression at UCI.)
Nowadays, different types of "tolerance"– for behaviors, ideas, and people– are generally lumped together . . . but these are hardly the same things. Much as "tolerance" fails as a category for dealing with goods or ideas, which are embraced rather than tolerated, so too is "tolerance" an inappropriate category with regard to persons. From a Christian perspective, all persons deserve unconditional respect and love simply because they are human beings, children of God. We may "tolerate" their irritating behavior (What irritates you?: Ungraciousness? Rudeness? Obnoxiousness? Those in the "Express Line" with more than the allowable numberof items? Smokers? Litterers? The chronically late?...or the persistently early? ... Those who rant that "tolerance is not enough"?). It is naturally human to get irritated, but it is insulting to suggest that we "tolerate" the persons themselves.
I do not find biblical references to "tolerate" (Esther 3:8 and Revelation 2:20) and "tolerable" (Matthew 11:22-24 and Luke 10:12-14) helpful here. There are uses of "respect" (for example, Romans 13:7c, "respect those to whom respect is due", 1 Thessalonians, "command the respect of outsiders", and 1 Timothy 2:2b, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and respect") that may provide guidance. The words "tolerance", "toleration", "tolerate" appear no where in our Book of Common Prayer. The word "respect" appears twelve times, most notably in our Baptismal Covenant, "...respect the dignity of every human being" (BCP 294, 305, 417), Prayers of the People (BCP 390) and the Litany for Ordinations (BCP 549), "For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and forbearance may grow...", and our Catechism (BCP 846), "...all people are worthy of respect and honor, because all are created in the image of God, and all can respond to the love of God."
Religion is a good to be embraced , not an evil to be put up with. No one speaks of tolerating chocolate or a walk on the beach. By speaking of religious "tolerance" we make religion an unfortunate fact to be suffered, like noisy neighbors and congested roads, not a blessing to be celebrated.
The French Enlightenment philosopher and deist Voltaire (1694-1778) accused the Italian priest and scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-1274, lesser feast day - January 28) of being intolerant for wishing that all the world were Christian. I think that Aquinas was really saying that he wished all people to be happy, and few would consider it intolerant to wish all people to be healthy or well-educated ...though, I suppose, this implies "intolerance" toward ignorance and illness. Building on Locke’s arguments, Voltaire arrived at relativism’s logical end, indifference: Live and let live.
Now, my mother taught me "Live and let live!" And she tied this inextricably to full respect for the freedom of every human being. My theological mentors have taught me that the Church’s mission promotes freedom, rather than restricts possibilities; that the Church proposes, rather than imposes; that the Church respects individuals and cultures, and honors the sanctuary of conscience. Perhaps this was stated best way back when I was in high school, ...yes, a Roman Catholic high school (Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks) ..., by the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom:
"Truth is to be sought after in a manner proper to the dignity of the human person and his(/her) social nature. The inquiry is to be freely carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communication and dialogue, in the course of which men (and women) explain to one another the truth they have discovered, or think they have discovered, in order thus to assist one another in the quest for truth."
So, respect for religious freedom stands head-and-shoulders above a "tolerance" for religious belief and practice and expression with the relativism and indifference for religion it so often comprises.
I think this is what we were doing on that wonderful spring noontime in Aldrich Park at UCI.
On a lovely noonday, toward the end of UCI’s spring term I went to Aldrich Park with my Rabbi, Mark Miller of Temple Bat Yahm, for a midweek noontime opportunity to “Stand Together for Tolerance.”
This event was sponsored by the UCI Academic Senate to affirm that people of different faiths and spiritual practices are safe and welcome to practice their religions and to support the right of free expression at UCI.
Rabbi Miller and I met our wonderful Episcopal campus minister of the Canterbury Foundation at UCI, ...yes, The Rev’d Martha Korienek..., representatives of the President of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council, The Rev’d Dr. Dennis Short of Harbor Christian Church, Imam Ali Siddiqui of the California Muslim Institute, other religious leaders, Martha Macartney, Chair of UCI’s Academic Senate, and UCI’s Chancellor, Michael V. Drake. What struck me during that experience is that “tolerance”, or “toleration”, isn’t enough. We need to be mutually respectful!
I’ve long thought that “tolerance” really means: “your way is okay, but mine is better!” Our modern ideas of religious tolerance sprang from the European Enlightenment. The language of “tolerance” was first proposed to describe the attitude that confessional states, such as Anglican England and Roman Catholic France, should adopt toward Christians of other persuasions; in the 18th century no mention was made of “tolerance” for non-Christian faiths.
The assumption was that the state had recognized a certain confession as “true” and put up with other practices and beliefs as a concession to those in error. In contemporary non-confessional countries, like our United States, where an attitude of “tolerance” is not that of the state religion toward unsanctioned creeds but of a secular state toward religion itself, this “tolerant” mentality is especially problematic. Some have gone so far as to say that religious tolerance is a myth imposed by an anti-religious intellectual elite.
Of course, the meaning of “tolerance” has evolved. The United Nations’ Declaration of Principles on Tolerance states that “tolerance” is a virtue and defines it as “acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and way of being human.” This definition mirrors that of the American Heritage College Dictionary, which states that “tolerance” is “a fair and permissive attitude toward those whose race, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one’s own.”
If “tolerance” is a virtue, it is a decidedly modern one. It appears in none of the classical treatments of the virtues: not in Plato, not in Seneca, not even in Aristotle’s extensive list of the virtues of the good citizen in his “Ethics.” Indulgence of evil, in the absence of overriding reasons, has never been considered virtuous. Indiscriminate “tolerance”, of child abuse or tax evasion for example, should not be allowed.
I appreciate what George Bernard Shaw wrote in his play “Saint Joan”: “We may prate of tolerance as we will, but society must always draw a line somewhere between allowable conduct and insanity or crime.”
“Tolerance” always relates to what is considered “tolerable” by the reigning cultural milieu. Think of how “tolerance” is applied selectively — to race, sexual orientation, or ...religious conviction — while other areas — such as smoking, recycling, or animal experimentation –- stand safely outside the purview of mandatory diversity.
Remember that, in the midst of his impassioned appeal for religious toleration, British Empiricist John Locke (1632-1704) noted that “toleration” does not extend to atheists, Jews, Muslims, or Catholics. He wrote, “To worship one’s God in a Catholic rite in a Protestant country amounts to constructive conversion.” In “A Letter Concerning Toleration”, Locke dismissively notes that all Protestant churches should be tolerated and that “everyone is orthodox to himself.” Ultimately, the question for everyone necessarily becomes not, “Shall I be tolerant of intolerant?” but rather, “What shall I tolerate and what shall I not tolerate?”
My reflection on whether or not tolerance is enough will continue in the August edition of “For the Love of Mike.”
JUNE 2007
At a Companion Diocese Network meeting last month, a friend since our campus ministry days, +Bill Skilton, recently retired Bishop Suffragan of South Carolina, called the current situation (disaffection, schism, heresy, conundrum) affecting our Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church a “muddle”. My dictionary defines “muddle” as “a confused mess”. Better than any of the words in parenthesis above, our current Anglican/Episcopal reality is described as “a confused mess”, defined as a “muddle”.
This “muddle” will be the focus of our Sunday-at-Nine “class” in our Davis Library this month on Sundays, June 17 and 24.
We will look at our Anglican Communion, talk about how it became what it is and how it functions. We will talk about the mission and ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and the Anglican Consultative Council. Our Communion includes thirty-nine independent churches in one hundred sixty-three countries with eighty million members globally.
We will consider how our Episcopal Church in the United States is similar to, and different from, the other thirty-nine churches in our Communion. We will review what I hope we were taught in our (pre-)Confirmation classes about the organization of The Episcopal Church: Provinces and Dioceses, Councils and Committees, bicameral governance with a House of Deputies and a House of Bishops at a tri-annual General Convention (next: July 2009 in Anaheim!).
For those of us “conspiracy theorists” we will look at “Hard Ball on Holy Ground: The Religious Right v. the Mainline for the Church’s Soul” (by Stephen Swecker, 2005) and the “Chapman Memo” which is dated December 28th 2003 and begins “Our ultimate goal is a realignment of Anglicanism on North American soil...”
For those of us who need insight and comfort we will consider Phyllis Tickle’s “Presentations and Meditations” from both a clergy conference and our Diocesan Convention in 2006 and “Our commitment to listening and learning” by the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan. We will get as an-up-to-date-as-possible report on what’s happening with our Diocese of Los Angeles and the four parishes that have become members of the Diocese of Luweero in the Church of Uganda, especially our beloveds at St. James on Via Lido. We will look at recent statements from our House of Bishops, Executive Council and other national and international resources.
We will consider commitment “to biblical faith and values driven by Gospel Mission”, in words from the “Chapman Memo”. Hopefully, after only two weeks we will have a better idea as to what this “muddle” is really all about: gender and/or sex and/or control and/or authority and/or power.
I hope you will be with us.
Saint Luke the Evangelist wrote both the Gospel with his name and the Acts of the Apostles. We are reading Luke’s Gospel this “Year ‘C’” in the Lectionary for Sunday’s three-year cycle (BCP 911-921).
In our Sundays-at-9AM class this month we will be focusing on “The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles” with Dr. F. Philip Johnston, former Dominican priest and Professor of Philosophy and Theology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Phil came from his home parish of Saints Simon & Jude Roman Catholic Church in Huntington Beach last fall; many appreciated this wonderful biblical scholar’s Sundays-at-9AM series on the Gospel of Mark. Come this month to hear Dr. Johnston on “The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles” in our Davis Library between worship services.
Luke wrote both the story of Jesus and the story of the early church.Sometimes it seems unfortunate to me that Luke’s two books are separated in the New Testament by the Gospel of John. Placing Acts directly after Luke would help us see how one flows into the other –- how the Acts of the Apostles picks up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off.
This is especially significant to the story of Pentecost which we will hear and celebrate, dressed in red, on May 27. The first Christian Pentecost is deeply rooted in the Gospel of Luke. Think of Pentecost beginning not with Acts 1:1, “When the day of Pentecost had come”, but with the words of the angel to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”, Luke 1:35. The Spirit responsible for the birth of Jesus is also responsible for the birth of the church. The birth of the church in Acts 1-2 parallels the birth of Jesus in Luke 1-2.
Think of the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 fulfilling the prophecy of John the Baptist in Luke 3:16, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. The Spirit that fills the disciples in Acts 2:4 is the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus at this baptism in Luke 3:22. Jesus began his ministry Spirit-filled (Luke 4:1), and so does the church (Acts 2:4,38). Jesus told the disciples not to worry about what they would say when brought before the authorities because the Spirit would teach them (Luke 10:11-12) — a prophecy that we see fulfilled in Acts (4:8; 5:29-32; 6:10; 7:1-55; 13:46-47; 16:35-39; 21:37-22:39; 23:6-10; 24:10-21; 25:1-12; 26:1-32; 28:23-30).
Pentecost is the day that we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian church. The story is in Acts 2.1-47. Pentecost is “Holy Spirit Day”! To get ready for May 27th 2007, please join me in this ancient prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Come as holy fire and burn in us,
Come as holy wind and cleanse us,
Come as holy light and lead us,
Come as holy truth and teach us,
Come as holy forgiveness and free us,
Come as holy love and enfold us,
Come as holy power and enable us,
Come as holy life and dwell in us.
Convict us,
Convert us,
Consecrate us, until we are wholly yours
For your using, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“Lead us not into temptation” or “Save us from the time of trial”(or, as I prefer personally, “Be with us especially in trying times”).
This plea from “the Lord’s Prayer”, “Our Savior Christ’s Prayer”, found in Matthew 6:13a and Luke 4c, a good place to begin Lent 2007. On the first Sunday in Lent we heard the story of the “temptation” of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness in Luke 4:1-13.
In our time and place, the word “temptation” has become so diluted that it seems to me to mean little more than pardonable naughtiness: something that simply pleases our senses ...like eating chocolate. In the Bible, the word peirasmos in Greek, “temptation” is an experiment to find something out; when we are subject to peirasmos we are being tested so that “who we really are” is allowed to appear.
Moments of crisis and confrontation are those in which we find out “what we’re made of”, as my dad used to say. No one “in their right mind”, a favorite phrase of my mom, invites crises or confrontations so praying “do not lead us into peirasmos”, or “be with us as we find our that which we really don’t want to know”, makes perfect sense.
Lent as a time for thinking about being “tempted” looks more serious, and more disturbingly contemporary, to me this year. As we ponder war, global warming, energy and fuel needs, and widening gaps between “haves” and “have nots” dare we ask:
Are we committed to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being”? (BCP 305)
What responsibility comes with power? (Spiderman says, “With great power comes great responsibility!”)
Am I able to confront challenges to my self-satisfied outlook when they turn up in ordinary human relationships? Dare we risk change? (There are too many jokes about “change” to even start here...)
Our peirasmos moments, our times of testing, are concerned with our concrete, dedicated and faithful responses to everything, secular and religious, which speaks of the divine concern for all creatures. We are asked to play our part in the struggle which God is waging against whatever impoverishes or impedes goodness-in-act, that “war” in Revelation 12 in which our patron saint, Michael and his angels, champion God’s cause.
How are we participating in God’s working in the world? Are we playing our rightful parts as co-workers with God in Christ against all that is negative, all that is contrary to the divine will, all that denies human dignity and integrity, all that prevents the increase of love and justice in the world? As Christians we are to find our own needs met eternally and, in response, meet the needs of others temporally: needs being met by those with met needs.
Lent 2007 is a season when we are all likely to find ourselves in an unwelcome peirasmos. At least we can pray for a truthfulness that will make the testing of our hearts less terrible, and for a search for whatever actions it is that will let God’s elusive and mysterious and irresistible power into our lives.
These days I am often asked "What does your new ‘personalized’, ‘coastal’ license plate, "NASMUCH" mean?"
I rejoice for opportunities to respond.
At the conclusion of my Christmas sermon I said, "I would like for you to hear the words of Jesus after he was grown, the wisdom of Jesus the man. These are words I think are so much at the heart of the Gospel that I have done my best to put them on my license plate, appointed this gospel to be read at the celebration of my life, my ‘funeral’ (many years from now), and expect to be judged by all they mean before God’s throne of grace:
‘Jesus said, "You will wonder . . . ‘When was it we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you something to put on? When was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?
I say to you, InAsMuch as you have done such good to one of the least of God’s children ...you have done it to me. And InAsMuch as you have not done good to the least of God’s children ...you have not done good to me."’"
Matthew 25:31-46, "The Great Judgment", was also the favorite Bible passage of one of my great heroes in our faith, George Fabian Tittmann, who was rector of the parish next door to Canterbury House when I first became the Episcopal campus missioner at Cal, Berkeley. I wore his alb here on "60 in 06" last July 30th. Titles of George’s writing may give an inkling of who he was: His books are titled: Praying Always, What Manner of Love?, Whispers From The Dust, and Is Religion Enough?; his many articles include: "On Christian Healing" and "Sharing Leadership". George taught that mission is the heart of the ministry which belongs to all baptized persons. He wrote in "Final Thoughts":
"Let the Eucharist become the peak, the climax, the chief joy and nourishment of your life. For it is here you bring to God (rather, you let Jesus Christ’s Spirit bring you), however poorly and half-heartedly, all you have and are and want to be, all you should be and are not. Here your paltry gifts are joined with the only Gift that was good enough. Receive back from the Altar yourself, given to God by Jesus –- of whose very Body you are a member. Then go your way, ‘returned to duty,’ to serve God down through your years –- however many or few they be."
"InAsMuch" would not fit on the seven-character-maximum "coastal" (Whale Tail) California license plate, so NASMUCH seemed to be the best I could do. I hope the proceeds of the plate do "maintain beaches and public coastal education programs" as the DMV promises for that could exemplify the mission which is at the heart of ministry. NASMUCH serves me as a consistent reminder to "do good to the least of God’s children". I pray that I’ll continue to consistently remind you to do likewise.
Epiphany means “an appearance” or “a manifestation”, the word comes from the Greek. The true understanding of both the Feast Day (January 6th) and the Epiphany Season (until Lent begins on Ash Wednesday) is the manifestation of God in the person of Jesus to the world. As Epiphany 2007 begins, I am wondering “What does ‘Epiphany’ mean to me in my life and . . . what does ‘Epiphany’ mean to you in your life?”
Does “Epiphany” remind us that God is always the light that shines in darkness? God’s light comes to each one of us individually and to each-and-every nation. However “dark” a present moment may be, God’s promise is always “light”. This is the theme of the Gospel for the Feast of The Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12, the story of the wise ones from the east coming to worship the child born to be king, guided by a star’s radiance.
Does “Epiphany” remind us of our Baptismal Covenant (please see pages 302-305 in our Book of Common Prayer)? On the 1st Sunday after Epiphany we always remember Jesus’ baptism and pray “that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior”.
Does “Epiphany” remind us to strengthen the relationships which are most important in our lives? This year on the Epiphany II we will hear John 2:1-ll, the story of Jesus’ changing water into wine during a wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. Its deep symbolism shows the astonishing abundance available to those transformed
by the light in Christ.
Does “Epiphany” remind us of our heritage? On Epiphany III we will hear Jesus reading the Hebrew Scriptures (Isaiah 61:1-2) in Christian Scriptures (Luke 4:18-19), words offering good news and hope to the poor and telling of freedom and healing for those in “darkness”, of the “light” available to all.
Does “Epiphany” challenge you, as it does me, to live in peace and harmony with those close to, but differing from, us? Continuing reading in the Gospel according to Luke we will hear of opposition Jesus encountered while preaching in his own town and of how he was not well understood in his own home.
Does “Epiphany” sound God’s “call” to us, as we hear God calling to Gideon, to James and John, to Simon Peter? So often in the Bible God chooses people who seem insignificant in human terms to do his will. God consistently assures them of divine presence as God constantly reassures that God is with us.
On the 5th Sunday after The Epiphany, we will hear Luke 6:17-26 which, unlike Matthew’s Beatitudes, offers “woe to”s as well as “blessed are”s. Does “Epiphany” remind us of our special challenges? We are “rich”, “full now”, “laughing”, satisfied and well spoken of. Can we clearly see God’s “Light” which is so dazzling in the story of Jesus’ transfiguration which we always hear on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany?
I hope “Epiphany” will reminds you and me of these challenges and, in whatever “darkness” we experience, of God’s assurance and “Light”.
Particularly I remind you of the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th.That Saturday morning at ten o’clock our beloved, The Rev’d Martha Susan Korienek, will be among those ordained priest by our Bishop Diocesan, The Rt. Rev’d Jon Bruno, at St. John’s Episcopal Church on West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. (Car pooling is available. Martha has provided an opportunity to sign-up in Michael’s Room.) That evening at five, our Friends of Music will host our annual, and always enjoyable Epiphany Party: Evensong at 5:00 p.m. followed by a British-theme dinner with Rusty Vail Delafkaran’s Waldorf School singing group providing entertainment.
Especially I ask that you calendar Saint Michael & All Angels’ 40th Annual Parish Meeting on the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 4th. Yes, that is “SOUPer Bowl Sunday”, but our Annual Parish meeting will begin promptly at 11:30 a.m. and conclude before 1:00 p.m., in plenty of time for you to get to “Super Bowl” parties as that game doesn’t “kick off” until after 3:00 p.m.We have significant challenges ahead in this our wonderful Christian community as we discern what God’s “Epiphany” Light means to us.