In your relationship with God-in-Christ, what are your greatest needs? What do you desire most in life?
Please look at other articles in this …Love of Mike. Our “Prayer Tree” and the update on results of efforts to balance budget with program will let you know what a challenging time this is for our Christian community.
While we surely need to live our mission within our means, we can seek opportunities to expand our horizons and broaden our vision:
- We worship in a beautiful sanctuary dominated by a wonderful representation of the incarnate Christ, God in human form, suffering an excruciating and ignominious death. We know that very shortly after this happened on Good Friday, on Easter Day Jesus rose and left his tomb empty, forever opening to us life beyond our imaginations.
Does this consistently remind us that whatever we may be going through presently will not last forever (usually, not long at all)? Does this assure us that God always is the last word, and that word is“Love-Light-Life”?
- We pray “…thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”Do we understand that God’s kingdom is both here-and-now and always coming?
Do we realize that we are God’s hands and feet to bring God’s dominion into this world now,that God has blessed us abundantly to share with other children of God, our brothers and sisters in Christ?
- We use great and traditional statements of our faith as we aspire to understand that“through (God) all things were made”, that God “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” as we “look for (their) resurrection… and the life of the world to come.”
Do we realize how fine the lines are between chapters of eternal life and Who the judge is on the throne of grace? S/He is love!
- We make Eucharist (which, of course, means “thanksgiving”) together praying “We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praiseand thanksgiving. Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts ” (BCP 363)
Do we live the reality that among the gifts we offer back to God are “the wonderof life and the mystery of love . . . the loving care which surrounds us on every side . . . tasks which demand our best efforts and…. accomplishments which satisfy and delight us” and even “disappointments and failures which lead us to acknowledge our dependence on (God) alone” (BCP 836)?
Do we regularly or spontaneously adopt an attitude of gratitude when faced with such challenges?
In your relationship with God-in-Christ, what are your greatest needs? What do you desire most in life?
As always, I am very glad to consider such questions with you as I am sure are other members of our staff and vestry.
Here are a few of many opportunities to bring us together, fulfill some of our needs and broaden our visions this Fall:
- Regular worship: Eucharist on Sundays at 8:00 and 10:00 (choral worship) a.m.,Tuesday’s “Peace Mass” at 7:30 a.m. (after Morning Prayer at 7:00 a.m.) and with “The Public Service of Healing” at 12 noon on Thursdays.
- Sundays-at-Nine every week and Sunday School beginning on September 12.
- Bible study on The Letter of Paul to the Romans using Kerygma’s materialswhich call it “the most influential letter ever written,” beginning September 15.
- Our “First Annual Golf Tournament” on September 24. (Like tennis players do, golfers do talk about important questions and concerns between shots/strokes, don’t they?)
- Our celebration of Saint Michael & All Angels’ Festival on September 26.You are invited to bring a friend/neighbor/family member with you to church especially on this Sunday for celebratory worship on our namesake saint’s festival and for our “Ministry Fair.”
- On Sunday, October 3, we will bless critters (cats and dogs, birds and reptiles,“lions and tigers and bears”) to honor Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. This is always a very special celebration. Oh my!
- Sunday, October 10 (10/10/10) will be most special: Our Bishop Diocesan,The Right Reverend Jon Bruno will be here to celebrate, preach and confirm (Grant Wallace, Jack Stafford and Don Haynes). There will be surprises!
- Our “Sundays-at-Nine”, “Praying Our Goodbyes”, Senior Ministry’s program on health care reform’s affects on Medicare, Friends of Music’s “Sundays at Four”, return of our adult and children’s and hand- bell choirs (all choirs are eager to accept new members!), “Cavalcade Of Saints” and more celebrations of All Saints and All Souls Days are on the way, too.
We continue to meet challenges facing us as a Christian community when we see them as new opportunities to share our critical concerns, ask essential questions, broaden our vision and expand our horizons.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
SUMMER 2010
“You can’t always get what you want” is not only a legendary lyric in Rock-n’-Roll but also a truth in life we all discover sooner or later. We are blessed to get what we want more than most people in this world and last December 4-5 and
May 15 I got what I wanted. The election and ordination-&-consecration of Diane Bruce and Mary Glasspool to be Bishops Suffragan in our Diocese of Los Angeles is powerful witness both to the wonderful diversity and variety within the Episcopal Church in southern California and to the reality that all are equally welcome into this Christian community.
The theme for our Celebration of Ordination & Consecration on May 15 was “REJOICE”. I rejoice!
Saint Michael & All Angels had special involvement in the festivities of May 15: Lynn Headley co-chaired the Ordination and Consecration Planning Team, Jim Headley coordinated ushers and greeters; many, many Saint Michael & All Angelites (including Murry McClaren who brought our banner, Myrna Ireland and Frances Fukuda who with members of the Girl’s Friendly Society created boutonnieres for ushers who included Mike Ortt, Jay Launt, Steve Dulson, Clyde Dodge, Larry Spang, Richard Alegre, Bryant Henry and Laird Blue; Frances Haynes worked with the press at the Long Beach Arena) served as volunteers on May 15. I don’t know how our other Delegates (The Reverends Martha Korienek and Canon Ray Fleming, Steve Dulson, Teri Corbet, Richard Zevnik and Lynn Headley) voted at Diocesan Convention last December, but I voted for Diane and Mary until they were elected, Diane on the first three ballots and Mary on the next seven; I am proud and glad to have done so. At their consecration the records of their ordinations were read; I got goosebumps when Diane’s history included “ordained Deacon on June 7, 1997 by Bishop Anderson for Bishop Borsch at Saint Michael & All Angels, Corona del Mar.”
Diane will be here for the first of what I trust will be many, many times as Bishop Bruce on June 13. Bishop Bruce will celebrate and preach during Sunday morning worship, then chair our All-Parish Meeting in All Angels’ Court. We have difficult and significant concerns before us. As best we have been able to, we’ve spread word that our income was $42,810 less that our expenses for the first four months of 2010. Imagine what it would mean for us to have to cut three times that, $128,430, from our program to balance our $590,000 2010 budget! (Our Program & Budget in the past five years has been: $600,000 in 2009, $660,000 in 2008, $680,000 in 2007, $625,000 in 2006, $650,000 in 2005.)
Your Vestry is seriously wondering what is happening among us: I’ve asked “Am I the problem?”
Other Vestry persons wonder, “Are other members of our staff…?” “Is change in the Episcopal Church terribly problematic for us?” “Can our decline in income really be solely due to global-national-local financial realities?” “What can we afford?” What must we afford?” “What can we do to balance our Program & Budget and live within our means as we know we must?” Your leadership is struggling.
All questions and concerns, as well as challenges and perspectives, ideas and opportunities, will be welcome at our very, very important All-Parish Meeting on June 13.
“You can’t always get what you want” is followed lyrically by “But if you try, sometimes, you just might find you get what you need!” Will we remember that Christ holds the church together and “try” to connect the realities made so clear in the celebrations of last December 4-5 and May 15 with the challenges of our own Parish’s Program & Budget? I trust that if we “try” as best we are able, we will get what we “need” and maybe even what we “want”.
Please, please be with us on June 13.
MAY 2010
Here are some resources for Easter Season cheerfulness complied from the Internet:
Top 26 Reasons to be Episcopalian:
1. Free wine on Sundays
2. Church year is color coded
3. It’s easier to spell than Presbyterian
4. Pew aerobics
5. Need not know how to swim to be baptized
6. No snake handling
7. Whatever you believe, at least one other Episcopalian agrees with you
8. One free foot washing per year
9. All of the pageantry -- none of the guilt
10. Directions included in Book of Common Prayer
11. More committees than members
12. Guitar (or tennis racket)-toting priests
13. No grape juice
14. Okay to believe in dinosaurs
15. Brains need not be checked at the door
16. Everyone is invited to brunch
17. No minimum age requirements for full benefits
18. Ability to regurgitate scripture is not a requirement
19. Has the right “Rite” to meet your need
20. Real wine
21. Music for the young . . . and old
22. Cardiovascular fitness (sit, stand, kneel, “sneel”, …repeat)
23. The only Episcopalians on TV are politicians
24. Male and female God created them -- make and female we ordain them
25. Husband and wife God ordained us -- and our priests
26. Love to make lists, even if a little snobby
Working Beliefs of Most Episcopalians:
Episcopalians occasionally believe in miracles and sometimes even expect them, particularly during stewardship campaigns or when electing bishops or rectors/vicars, or recruiting church school teachers.
Episcopalians believe in ecumenical dialogue because they are certain that after all is said and done, everyone else is bound to be an Episcopalian.
Episcopalians strongly believe in Scripture, tradition and reason. While they aren’t sure what they believe about these three things, there is almost universal agreement that this is hardly the point.
Episcopalians believe that everything in their life and faith is improved by the presence of good food and drink, not including lime-carrot Jell-O, tropical punch Kool-Aid, or canned tuna fish in any form.
Episcopalians believe that anything worth doing is especially worth doing if it has an obscure title attached to it -- for example: dean, sexton, crucifer, Suffragan, Canon.
Likewise, Episcopalians believe that any place worth visiting is greatly enhanced by a name that only obliquely describes it -- for example: nave, narthex, sacristy, undercroft, church school supply room.
Episcopalians firmly believe that coffee hour is the eighth sacrament, but only if the coffee is caffeinated.
Episcopalians believe that anthems are most efficacious if sung in Latin or German, especially during Lent.
Episcopalians generally believe that they are the only people God trusts to take summers off from church.
Some Episcopalians believe Rite I is the best expression of the liturgy. Some believe that Rite II is better. Most Episcopalians haven’t noticed the difference: they just hope the whole thing gets over before noon.
Episcopalians believe that next to prayer the most healing human activity is laughter.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
April 2010
Looking forward to our Parish “Pilgrimage to the Land Jesus Walked” in July 2011, I think of many stories. One that is often told is of General Allenby near the end of the first World War. When his British troops captured Jerusalem, it was suggested that the General ride in on his horse at the head of his troops. Viscount Edmund Allenby refused to do so, saying, “I will walk into Jerusalem, even as our Lord walked into the city for His crucifixion.” As he and his troops entered the Holy City, citizens told him that before the enemy evacuated Jerusalem they had robbed it of all its treasures. But, of course, they could not take Christ’s tomb in the great Church of the Resurrection. The treasures of that tomb were not the gold and silver and precious jewels with which it had been adorned; no one could steal the real treasure.
The real treasure is an empty tomb. The real treasure is that Jesus Christ has triumphed and that he has risen from the dead opening ever-new possibilities to us. During this Easter season, let us seek in our own hearts to rediscover some of the triumphs of that empty tomb.
First of all, Jesus Christ has made possible the triumph of life over death. The possibility of life beyond our bodies and this earth is great good news! “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 15:57) Christ has overcome death and opened the door to everlasting life. Jesus has gone ahead to prepare a place for us (please see John 14:1-3).
Secondly, Christ’s triumph is the triumph of faith over doubt. (Remember Frederick Buechner’s wisdom: “…if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” “Wishful Thinking”, page 20)
After his resurrection, Jesus converted cowardice in those who had witnessed his crucifixion into courage for spreading God’s Good News. His first beloveds emerged from behind closed doors to challenge a hostile world with the great conviction that they were preaching the Gospel of One Who had been crucified and now was risen from the dead.
The third and eternal triumph of Christ Jesus is the triumph of gladness over grief. John 20:20b says, “Then the disciples were glad and rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” When the risen Christ appeared before them, they must have been overjoyed because they realized that here was the answer to all their questions. The cross could not hold Jesus; the tomb could not keep him. He had risen from the dead and was now able to abide with them forever.
The Easter message is the answer to grief, doubt and death. The message of Easter is that Jesus Christ has risen and lives (and loves) today and forever!
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
April 2010
Lent 2010 began on Ash Wednesday, February 17, and will end at sunset on Holy Saturday, April 3.
Lent comes at us from two perspectives: Our historical rooting and the overwhelming circumstances of our times. The second of these always seems to me the most immediate: reeling from tragedies like the January 12 earthquake in Haiti to possibilities of more bloody wars to famines to epidemics of major proportions to the abounding deeply personal disasters that mark our way. We are driven to our knees – sometimes in desperation and confusion, sometimes in simple frustration at our inabilities and mortality’s limitations. It doesn’t take a genius, or a skillful theologian, to demonstrate our need for repentance and the tremendous value of a time of reflection and renewal. After all, as Frederick Buechner writes in “Wishful Thinking : A Theological ABC”:
“To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens.
True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ than to the future and saying ‘Wow!’”
The other dimension, roots in history, while less obvious to us, is equally important. Much of the practice in Lent is based in our history. To dismiss it as irrelevant saying that our mother’s-and-father’s circumstances were measurably different than our own impoverishes us. Tragedy, foolishness, and blood forge strong bonds of commonality across centuries and continents and cultures.
Lent began as a period of preparation for baptism into the family of God. It was a time of teaching, fasting, and prayer prior to the great paschal celebration when baptisms took place. (And I appeal for candidates for Holy Baptism at The Great Vigil of Easter!) Our baptism into Jesus set the course: never again will we be able to live in this life without both anguish and forgiveness. And we come home to our baptism in Lent.
Lent was made forty days to parallel Jesus’ days in the wilderness of temptation and Noah’s days in the ark and Israel’s years in the desert of Sinai. It was, and is, to be a time of very purposeful disciplina, a Latin word meaning teaching-and-learning, from which we get both discipline and disciple in English.
Side-by-side with the anguish we know from discovering the times and circumstances of our lives is that call from our history to stand under the discipline of God’s word today. Even as our Lord spoke a clear word of forgiveness and healing to his people in ancient times, so God speaks today in the life of his people. To those who repent of their sins and call on God’s name, God is gracefully merciful beyond measure. Bishop Barbara Harris has said, “The power behind you is greater than the task ahead of you.”
We need both dimensions to make a good Lent: the internal and immediate along with the external and objective. Their separation always makes a mockery – either grief with no healing or exercises with no heart. Our calling is to hold them together, to carry in our common life the anguish and the wholeness, both gifts of God, for which our world cries.
Elsewhere in this newsletter (here) you will find resources to help us hold and carry both.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
February, 2010
Epiphany themes fill this month, at least until Ash Wednesday, February 25. "Epiphany" means "manifestation" or "appearing". Scripturally, this Season focuses on the visit of the Magi, led by the star of Bethlehem; the Baptism of Jesus in the waters of the River Jordan; and Jesus’ first recorded miracle, the changing of water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee -- all thought of as "manifestations" of the incarnate Lord.
I think of an "epiphany" as a great discovery, an "Aha!" experience. Cartoonists picture an "epiphany" with a light bulb above a cartoon figure’s head. And that says is well for me:
An "epiphany" is a light suddenly switching on in our head and heart.
What "Aha!" experiences have you had? Mine usually come after I sleep on a concern I’ve been wrestling with. I’ll be pondering something, and bump up against "yes, but"s galore; finally, I’ll let go and head to bed. Then sometimes in the middle of the night, but more often in the morning, I’ll awake with a response. The "solution" to the "problem" just "comes to" me. It is an "epiphany",an "Aha!" experience.
The point of the story in the first twelve verses of the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is that the Wise One’s "epiphany" experience was understanding that God’s salvation was meant for them as well as for Jews. At the very beginning of this Gospel written by a Jew for Jews we learn that the Good News of God’s love is not limited and is available to all "ethne"; the Greek word "ethne" means "gentiles" and "nations". Jesus is for all!
It’s easier to believe that Jesus came to save the world, even that Jesus came to save "us", than it is to believe that Jesus came to save me. I think, "I try to be a good Christian, but I still do bad things; I’m not good enough... Is it possible that God came in Christ to save me? Maybe he tried, but has she succeeded? It is hard to believe that s/he has!" I believe most of us wonder . . . "Does God really love me?"
A teacher friend tells a story of a nine-year old girl who never spoke. When the other children sang, she was silent; when other children laughed, she sat quietly. The teacher could see that the girl was listening, but she couldn’t get her to talk. Then one day the teacher told the children about heaven, what a wonderful place it is and how God prepared heaven for those who love him. Much to the teacher’s surprise that girl raised her hand (it was one of those precious moments teachers pray for...). After the teacher acknowleged her, the girl asked, "Is heaven for girls like me?"
Don’t we wonder if heaven is for people like us?
Epiphany’s answer is "Yes!" "Yes, heaven is for people like you. Heaven is for you! God created heaven for ...you!" "Yes, God understands that you are not good enough; if you weren’t a sinner, you wouldn’t need Jesus. Jesus doesn’t die on the cross to save people who don’t need him. Yes, God loves people you might rather God not love: that neighbor who plays the trombone at all hours, every doofus and scumbag and derelict, rapists and murderers and such." "Jesus dies and rises to save you!"
Billy Graham puts it this way: "Jesus stopped dying on the cross long enough to answer the prayer of a thief. He stopped in a big crowd one day because someone touched the hem of his garment; and he’ll stop to touch your life, and forgive you, and change you."
If you will allow yourself to believe this and act accordingly, it will be the most wondrful "Aha!" experience imaginable. You can become truly joyful when you believe that God loves you.
I acknowledge how very, very much I do not know. But I do know this: God does truly love you. God really does love you! God wants you and me to respond to his loving us by our loving others.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
January 2010
"Th newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward."
T his famous quote is about a hundred years old and can be traced to the work of Finley Peter Dunne, 1867-1936, one of the great American journalists, who wrote about culture and politics in the voice and persona of an Irishman named "Mr. Dooley." No doubt Dunne’s spellcheck crashed, but the phonemic spellings were part of Mr. Dooley’s wit and charm.
Dunne’s "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" has been adapted by many leaders.
In his 2001 book, “Desire of The Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus”, American professor Thomas Cahill wrote, "The purpose of the Gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Cahill echos the first time I heard the phrase; that was from my ethics mentor, Joseph Fletcher, author of Situation Ethics, Moral Responsibility, and William Temple: Twentieth-Century Christian. Fletcher lists William Temple (1881-1994) along with Richard Hooker (1553-1600), Joseph Butler (1692-1752) and Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) as one of the Four Great Doctors of the Anglican Communion.
"The purpose of Christianity is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," William Temple (pictured at left) said in one of his radio addresses as Archbishop of Canterbury during World War II.
I often think about "comforting the afflicted" when engaged in ministries of our mission outreach in this Parish: Loaves and Fishes, Children of the Americas, The Rev’d Canon Orma Mavimbela’s services in Swaziland, Aids Care Teams In Our Neighborhoods, the Orange County Food Bank and Interfaith Shelter, the Free Wheelchair Mission, United Thank Offering, and more.
Since William Temple’s feast day last November 6, I have been thinking about "afflicting the comfortable" as a "purpose of Christianity. "Blue" emotions and fearfulness during holidaytimes, world-wide financial and political situations which affect us all and post-election feelings of being "winners" and "losers" are all lamentable and need perspective.
William Temple was a theologian, philosopher, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation. Joe Fletcher taught me that Archbishop Temple was "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," and "Anglicanism’s most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West." Something Temple wrote in l942 has provided needed perspective to me:
"The claim of the Christian Church to make its voice heard in matters of politics and economics is very widely resented, even by those who are Christian in personal belief and in devotional practices. It is commonly assumed that religion is one department of life, like art or science, and that it is playing the part of the busybody when it lays down principles for the guidance of other departments...
"In an age when it is tacitly assumed that the Church is concerned with another world than this, and in this with nothing but individual conduct as bearing on prospects in that other world, hardly anyone reads the history of the Church in its exercise of political influence. It is assumed that the Church exercises little influence and ought to exercise none; it is further assumed that this assumption is self-evident and has always been made by reasonable people.
"A survey of history, however, shows that the claim of the Church today to be heard in relation to political and economic problems is no new usurpation, but a reassertion of a right once universally admitted and widely regarded...
"The primary principle of Christian ethics and Christian politics must be respect for every person simply as a person. If each person is a child of God, whom God loves and for whom Christ died, then there is in each a worth absolutely independent of all usefulness to society. The person is primary, not the society; the State exists for the citizen, not the citizen for the State...
"I should give a false impression of my own convictions if I did not state that there is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labor and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and that the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social, and economic system under which they and their fellows live."
Finley Peter Dunne’s argument was that the power of newspapers was out of proportion; they even had the arrogance to think they could afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. William Temple humbly connected the wisdom in "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable": every person to God, earth to heaven, politics to prayers, finances to faith, fears to hopes,and mistrust to love. I recommend the Collect for his feast day to you as we begin 2009 together:
"O God of light and love, you illumined your Church through the witness of your servant William Temple: Inspire us, we pray, by his teaching and example, that we may rejoice with courage, confidence and faith in the Word made flesh, and may be led to establish that city which has justice for its foundation and love for its law; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,now and for ever. Amen."
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
Temple was the second son of Archbishop Frederick Temple (1821-1902). He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a double first in classics. He was a fellow and lecturer in Philosophy at Queen's College, Oxford from 1904-10, and was ordained priest in 1909. Between 1910 and 1914 he was Headmaster of Repton School after which he returned to being a full time clergyman, becoming Bishop of Manchester in 1921 and Archbishop of York in 1929. In 1932-1933, he gave the Gifford Lectures.
A renowned teacher and preacher, Temple is perhaps best known for his 1942 book Christianity and Social Order, which set out an Anglican social theology and a vision for what would constitute a just post-war society.
Temple defended the working-class movement and supported economic and social reforms.
--- Biographical Notes from Wikepedia
December 2008
L
ast year someone gave me a Bizarro cartoon which announced "Instead of the ‘Christmas Pageant’, this
year’s multicultural generic holiday play is ‘Mary and the Magic Baby’!" I used this text to preach on the culture war that would make Jesus roll over in his grave about what the holiday that claims his name has become, and said that Jesus is long-gone from his grave which, of course, is the whole point: Christmas is not about "magic" but incarnational faith - "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14) and "...who, by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, was made perfect Man of the flesh of the Virgin Mary his mother; so that we might be delivered from the bondage of sin, and receive power to become your children" (BCP 378).
God took on human flesh so that he might be with us and, even more, so that we might be with God. The incarnation radically transforms the personal history of each of us and the history of the world in which we live. Because "the Word became flesh" each of us must do our best to discern God’s will and, then, play our proper role in it. God has chosen to be with us, to live in us, to work through us, and to love us all!
At Christmas we go out of our way to believe. In the midst of a world of strife and anger, we long for peace and reconciliation. More than at any other time of the year, adults try to see the world with the eyes of children; we talk of Santa Claus because we are teaching, and learning, the truth that there is goodness in giving and that goodness lives on forever in touching the lives of others.
Like faith itself, Christmas is beyond reason.
What would a purely rational person think of a season in which perfectly sane adults incur crushing debt in an orgy of rampant spending running wildly about thinking that if they can buy just the right gift it will in some way convey their love for the one who receives it; in which we gaze in wonder at multicolored trees that become fire hazards; in which more people become depressed and lonely than at any other time of year?
Madeline L’Engle wrote, "This is the irrational season, when love blooms bright and wild."
On a dark December night, we twenty-first century creatures come out of the cold into our church filled with candlelight. We suspend our disbelief in order that we might believe. A star stands still above a stable in Bethlehem. Angels fill the skies and speak with shepherds, God whispers in dreams. The Almighty Creator of the universe makes himself small, helpless, touchable.
He puts himself in our hands and on our lips. Irrational Yes! Unreasonable? Without a doubt?
But, as Madeline L’Engle concluded, "Had Mary been filled with reason, there’d have been no room for the child."
There will be room for you in our sanctuary when we worship here on Christmas Eve:
5:00 p.m. - Children’s Christmas Pageant and Celebration of Holy Eucharist
8:00 p.m. - Celebration of Holy Eucharist with sermon/homily and carols
10:30 p.m. - "The Gift of Music"
11:00 p.m. - Festival Choral Eucharist
and Christmas Day with a celebration of Holy Eucharist with sermon/homily and carols at 10:00 a.m.
Merry Christmas!
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
Is it difficult for us to count our blessings? Almost every Sunday I am struck that on the Prayers of the People
page by the main door into our sanctuary there are fewer entries under "We give thanks for..." than there are under either "We pray for those who need our prayers,..." or "We pray for those who have died,...". I think that most of us could quickly and easily write a rather lengthy list, including thanks for: family, friends, faith, forgiveness, freedom, food, clothing, cars, a home, a job, health, opportunity, and much more.
To provide perspective:
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of God’s children in this world.
If you have money in the bank, cash in your wallet or purse, "spare change" someplace, you are among the top 8% of this earth’s wealthiest people.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of five hundred million people.
If you can attend public worship without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are blessed. Billions of other children of God cannot.
The traditional lessons for Thanksgiving Day (BCP 925) tell us:
Gratitude involves memory of the past.
"Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you..." (Deuteronomy 8:2)
Gratitude involves awareness of the present.
"Religion that is pure is to care for those in distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27).
Gratitude involves trust for the future.
Jesus tells us that God knows our needs and will not abandon us, that God cares even about what is transitory, and that worrying about tomorrow keeps us from paying attention to today.
Jesus teaches "strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) Seeing that the poor are fed and widows are cared for and orphans are loved and striving for God’s kingdom founded on justice and mercy and peace go to the heart of Jesus’ message.
Since gratitude involves memory of the past, awareness of the present and trust for the future, gratitude must be pre-eminently a human response. So, let us strive for God’s righteousness and be thankful each day, honestly saying to God, "Thanks for everything!"
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
October 2008
L ook forward with me to our November 2nd celebration of God’s "elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord" (All Saint’s Day) and all "the faithful departed" (All Souls Day). Our preacher/homilist will be The Rev’d Canon George F. Regas, Rel.D., D.D., Rector Emeritus of All Saints Church in Pasadena. George Regas is a great contemporary Episcopalian/Anglicas and a Christian prophet.
His ministry and mine have touched in many ways for which I am grateful: George came to All Saints, the largest Episcopal Church west of the Mississippi, in 1967 from Grace Episcopal Parish Church in Nyack, New York, where one of my best friends from seminary days is now rector: I am very familiar with Grace’s rectory in Nyack. In the summer of 1969 I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education at the California Hospital and Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles; one of my patients had an urgent financial need which George and others in Pasadena helped her meet.
Ten years later George was one of the best candidates in the election of a Bishop of California in San Francisco; I was the campaign manager of another candidate (my seminary dean and mentor, Harvey Guthrie). In l976 George and I were among {only} two hundred priests memorializing that General Convention to approve the ordination of women as priests; I will always remember Mary Regas, who also will be here on November 2, pushing an infirm George in a wheelchair to the podium in Minneapolis so that he could advocate equality with his strong, prophetic voice.
While in the Bay Area in l983 George interviewed me about the possibility of becoming the Associate Rector at All Saints; he didn’t call me! Since I returned to this Diocese of Los Angeles in 1988, George and I have been colleagues as alumni of The Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge (Massachusetts), and in peace with justice and interfaith ministries. I am blessed that he now calls me "dear friend".
George has served our Episcopal Church as a Deputy to General Conventions and member of the Board for Theological Education, as President of this Diocese’s Standing Committee and Chair of Diocesan Council, Commission on Ministry, Economic Development Corporation, the National Coalition of Ordained Women and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation continuing Archbishop Tutu’s legacy.
As a witness for justice and peace, he has received many awards for creative ministry, humanitarianism, and interfaith mission. He is the author of ‘Kiss Yourself & Hug the World’ and he is beginning to concentrate on a memoir. Since retiring from All Saints in 1995 George has been the Executive Director of The Regas Institute, a continuing interfaith peace ministry.
On the Sunday before our 2004 Presidential election George preached a sermon at All Saints titled "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush". In the first minute he said, "I don’t intend to tell you how to vote. Good people of profound faith will be for either George Bush or John Kerry for reasons deeply rooted in their faith."
The Internal Revenue Service took All Saints to court claiming that their Rector Emeritus had told parishioners to vote for John Kerry; the IRS has dropped that suit. When we celebrated the wonderful life of beloved Gwen Felton here in August 2007 I casually asked George, "Would you like to preach here on the Sunday before the next Presidential election?" He said, "I’d love to. Please put your invitation in writing." I did, and he accepted.
George concluded his October 31, 2004 sermon: "When you go into the voting booth, take with you all that you know about Jesus, the peacemaker. Take all that Jesus means to you. Then vote your deepest values." That is the message I hope he will bring to us on November 2, 2008. It is the wisdom I need to pray when I vote, and I whole-heartedly recommend this guidance and my election day mantra ("Vote your hopes, not your fears!") to you.
And, please... let me know who of those who have died in the past year you would like named from our altar on November 2, the"Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and the "Sunday After All Saints’ Day".
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
September 2008
Gordon and Adelle Yeaton were two beloveds who made the transition from Berkeley to Orange County easy for Frances and me ...more than twenty years ago!
They shared their wisdom, humor, empathy and hospitality freely and deeply, helping us Hayneses feel at home here. We felt like family almost immediately, learning of their experiences with youth, particularly the disadvantaged, with campus ministry, building projects in Mexico and summers at Camp Stevens, with advocating rights for farm workers and native Americans, with their choices of art, books and movies, and with the adventures of education being at the center of their lives.
Gordon was in his lengthy process of discerning his call to ministry. He served this parish and our diocese exceptionally well in "youth ministry" yet he knew he belonged at the altar.
I was privileged to continue the vocational pursuit he had begun with my predecessor and his hero and mentor, The Reverend John Rogers Davis, and to present Gordon for ordination to my hero and mentor, Bishop Fred Borsch, in 1989 and 1990.
We shared ministry of word and sacrament here at Saint Michael & All Angels’ altar and ambo.
I will always cherish remembrance of his wisdom in preaching and of his presence as we celebrated side by side. We often laughed and cried together sharing the joys and challenges of shared ministry.
When he died in April 2007 not only did Gordon leave a wonderful rich legacy, but after knowing one another for more than nineteen years he left a brother in me.
Gordon was one of the peopleI who loved me no matter what! I am honored to wear Gordon’s cross and the cope made by Fr. Davis’ mother which John gave to Gordon and Adelle gave to me. Since his death I have prayed for a way to honor Gordon.
Gordon was a great advocate for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County (HfHOC). In January 2003 he was elected to serve on the HfHOC Board of Directors and proved to be an incredible support to the organization. A few of Gordon’s accomplishments on behalf of Habitat included the creation and direction of an All-Faith Coalition, shepherding our Episcopal Church’s sponsorship of a home in Westminster and work to acquire property from St. Joseph’s Episcopal Parish in Buena Park.
In the three years that he served on that Board, a total of 27 families (148 people) moved in to their new homes built by Habitat OC. Gordon was a visible and loving representative of our Episcopal Church for the Habitat organization and Habitat families.
It was clear to all who knew and loved Gordon that Habitat for Humanity of Orange County was one of his true passions. In loving memory, many in Orange County hope to continue Gordon’s rich legacy by sponsoring a Habitat house in his memory: "Building Gordon’s Legacy".
It is my heartfelt hope that Saint Michael & All Angels will be a sponsor of this "...Legacy".
It is, as the Yeatons taught us to say in Orange County, "not inexpensive". The price tag is in six figures. I know that these are difficult financial times for us, and I understand that the mission/outreach ministries of our parish are all vital and are offering wonderful and recommendable opportunities. But I also know how deeply Adelle feels about this program and that the Yeaton family will support Habitat’s building this home in Buena Park most generously.
As I love Gordon and Adelle, I trust God and hope that we will be moved to provide for "Building Gordon’s Legacy" to honor our own beloved. I am eager to talk with you about this possibility.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
August 2008
The death earlier this summer of comedian-philosopher George Carlin, who I’ve cited numerous times from this
"desk", reminded me that humor is second only to prayer as a most healing human activity. So here are reflections on who we Episcopalians are, from Garrison Keillor of “A Prairie Home Companion” fame:
"We make fun of Episcopalians for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense,
their lack of speed and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese.
But... Episcopalians are the sort of people you could call up when you’re in deep distress.
If you are dying, they will comfort you. If you are lonely, they’ll talk to you.
And if you are hungry, they’ll give you tuna salad!
Episcopalians believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.
Episcopalians like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.
Episcopalians believe their rectors will visit them in the hospital,
even if they don’t notify them that they are there.
Episcopalians usually follow the official liturgy
and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.
Episcopalians believe in miracles and even expect miracles,
especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.
Episcopalians feel that applauding for their children’s choirs
will not make the kids too proud and conceited.
Episcopalians think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle
while passing the peace.
Episcopalians drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.
Episcopalians feel guilty for not staying to clean up
after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.
Episcopalians are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.
Episcopalians still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season
and Episcopalians believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.
And finally, you know you are an Episcopalian when:
It is 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after worship.
You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can.
Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee.
When you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, "May the Force be with you,"
and you respond, "and also with you."
And lastly, it takes ten minutes to say good-bye."
Helpful?
Humorful?
Yes, humor is second only to prayer as a most healing human activity.
Yours, in Christ,
Peter
July 2008
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.