Thursday Reflection

It’s about time!

Can you believe it is “All Hallows Eve” or slurred into one single word: “Halloween.” Tonight many, little ones (or those choosing to be little) will playfully or seriously deal with “…the ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night…”

For me, this night marks the end of summer and easy-autumn. Now I start thinking about all the “stuff” that happens between this moment and the end of the year: Thanksgiving, traveling, and Christmas shopping and pageants and concerts and gatherings and liturgies, and yeah, planning parish budget and the parish annual meeting that occurs 35 days after Christmas, and the parochial report due 66 days after Christmas.

So much will happen so rapidly. And off we shall run and force ourselves to enjoy ourselves when some are wistful and sad, others are harried and frenzied. Some take offense at any religious significance to a religious feast, and others retaliate and wish only evil on those who share not their own view of the meaning of the days.

We’ll talk and we’ll race about and we’ll dine – at least some of us will. Others living in the shadows will watch from afar. With all this rushing, I force myself to remember that Jesus not only redeemed persons – our “souls” to use the vocabulary of perennial theology – but he also redeemed time! If it is true that all of existence was caught up in the redemptive self-gift of Christ, then that includes “time” itself. So this means I need to be thinking about “time.” How do I use it? How do I abuse it? How am I its prisoner? Does it allow me to enjoy my life or am I forever hastening to the next stop, the next thing, the next meeting, the next meal, and over and over and over because I have not mastered time.

I don’t know all (maybe not any) of the answers. But I know this: we don’t need to create “ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties” to frighten us. We make time itself the demon that terrifies us.

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

So why are we doing this again?

It’s early Sunday morning, and I’m sitting in the church office knowing that the first persons who will arrive for the morning service will not be here for at least ninety minutes. It’s going to be a long day because later on, I plan to walk in the Crop Walk to help raise awareness to fight hunger. Abby is going to walk with me to make sure her out-of-shape old two legged caretaker will complete his commitment. And border collies have a way to herding you to spaces and places you might not wish to go.

Each year we have the same conversation. Although she loves to walk and run, she keeps telling me that she doesn’t understand why we need to be doing this. Nor can she comprehend why I must in conscience contribute to Bread for the World, Food for the Poor, or any of the local food pantries. Don’t we have the technology to end food shortages? Is this not most blessed, productive, and generous nation filled with not just the cruel and cantankerous (as portrayed in so often media) but also with open hearted and generous people? We humans should be capable of anything, right? Heck in an era when computers were glitz and trash (by contemporary standards), didn’t we rebuild both Lee Majors and Lindsey Wagner into bionic crime fighting spy thwarting superheroes for a mere $6,000,000 apiece – hardly more than the salary of the 24th bench warming player on the roster of a major league baseball team these days.

Here’s what I tell her each year. It’s not about technology or finances. It is about heart and soul. It is about inspired- from-beyond-ourselves desire to say ENOUGH to the injustices in which the have-nots of this and every society are drenched. It’s the recognition that spirituality without religion while allegedly fashionable is a bumper sticker slogan that has continued to produce narcissistic entitled folks who simply do not see the pain of others, or if they do, they hardly care. Like it or not, it is only when one recognizes the ONE who is greater than me and who commands me to love my brothers and sisters and do good for them not so that I feel good but rather because God’s world is to be marked by justice for all – no matter what culture one lives in, what nation one is a citizen of, how you vote, how you dress, or what religion (or lack thereof) you might profess. If you don’t care enough about more than yourself, then nothing ever changes. Status quo rules. Power will continue to corrupt. Children will continue to go hungry.

But later today we will continue to walk and give witness and hopefully raise money to try to make a small difference. And Abby can continue to inform her canine compatriots – And maybe she will finally understand. And maybe they will listen! And maybe some day we also will.

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

I’m not David Letterman but here is my Top Ten List for Personal Spiritual Well Being (in no particular order). I don’t pretend you would find this true in your life, but I find these “proverbs” work for me!

• Never assume you are the smartest one in the room. A little humility goes a long way.

• Never publically point out others’ faults unless you are ready to be on the receiving end of such a call out.

• Never assume you are irreplaceable or that God has never created anyone else who does as much as you.

• Whenever I’m too busy to take time for God, I am sure to mess something up.

• While it is true that “everybody lies” (NCIS – season 1 comment from main character), it just may be that what you are hearing today is the truth – or not!

• Assume God is much wiser than I am, so maybe I ought to be quiet and listen for God’s perspective.

• It is humanly impossible to like everyone, but Jesus does COMMAND me to love everyone – even my enemies.

• No one needs to know what I am thinking all the time.

• As often as I fail and fall, as long as I honestly repent and try to avoid those missteps, I will be forgiven by the One whose forgiveness counts. Whatever anyone else feels about me or whatever grudges they choose to hold is on them, not me.

• To believe something is NOT the same as to feel something. Feelings happen. Beliefs are choices!

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

Hey Jesus, Make Up Your Mind!

Don’t you love dealing with folks who often contradict themselves? You have certainly met the type. The person holding one position until deemed unpopular, and then he does a complete public about face. (And please do not only blame politicians for doing this!) Or how about the person(s) whose reactions you can never trust. The ones who grumble at you that he or she doesn’t want to be thanked for doing this-or-that, and yet God help you if you do not thank them as they will complain that they are taken for granted all the time.

The past two Sundays, the gospel accounts found in our Episcopal lectionary have this kind of contradictory tone. On Oct. 6, a passage was read where Jesus specifically taught that when you do what ought to do, when you act in a charitable or just fashion in accord with what we are called to be and do as believers, don’t go looking for thanks. In fact, we are to believe that “we are worthless slaves. We have only what we ought to have done.” (Luke 17:10) On the other hand, the very next verse which begins the well-known reading this coming Sunday (Oct. 13) takes us into an incident where Jesus has healed 10 lepers, and he notes about the one who had enough time to thank Him: “Then Jesus asked, ‘were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?’” (Luke 17:18).

So what’s the point? Are we being blamed for seeking gratitude or for not offering it or both? You want to make up your mind?

As one who tries to thank others but knows that at times I fail to do so because I forget or get distracted or simply did not appreciate all the nuances of the work that was done by this or that person while at the same time I always get uncomfortable accepting the gratitude of others (usually because I am always looking for a hidden ulterior motive in people – sorry that’s just the way my DNA was programmed – for better or worse I am Tony Campo’s oldest son with too many of his traits), I confess that it has taken me years to come to an understanding of what the Lord was trying to teach us. In fact, God doesn’t need our gratitude. God is God. And acting in a loving and giving fashion towards others ought not be done to receive praise.

It’s not about seeking gratitude but giving it. Reread the great prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Offering pardon or thanks is what makes us great in God’s eyes. While receiving such makes me feel better, doing such makes me grow closer to God. I might feel good when I receive recognition, but I do better to give it. That’s what we’re being taught.

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

Symbols and Words Matter

This morning, (Saturday 9/28) I found myself amused over the back and forth angst that a sports talk show host caused (an interesting person and not one I would ever accuse of worshipping before the altar of political correctness) when he went on a rant about the use of a particular nickname that the young new NY Giants quarterback seems to have been given in the media. The host found it offensive (and truth be told the player himself does not like it and wants no part of it –which in a civilized society would have ended the discussion right there – but of course we are hardly that anymore, are we?) The player is being deemed “Danny dimes” which to many has such a “wise guy” organized crime stereo typing Italian Americans connotation to it.

The fact that the name originated as a compliment from a teammate (as in, “this guys is so accurate, he can throw a football 70 yards and it’ll land on a dime”) is now irrelevant. Some folks are offended by the nickname. Some are offended that people are offended. It’s only a name. It’s a game. Why does every single issue become a political fight? (Answer to that one is simple: welcome to 2019 U.S.A.)

Now being the passionate baseball fan, I could care less who calls whom what in some other sport. But as a Christian, let me remind you that words and symbols do take on meanings and associations – even if never intended. It’s unfair. It’s illogical (as most of the grammar rules of the English language tend to be). I am not talking political correctness. I am speaking about our call as Christians to be civil and kind and never going out of our way to offend. Offenses happen when unintended, but why go the extra mile to cause them.

Let me give you some examples. It annoys me that one of the symbols of Christ’s death for our salvation, a particular style of cross developed into middle Ages is forever banned as a Christian symbol. The symbol was appropriated by those monsters in the last century called National Socialists (abbreviated: “Nazi”) who took an unusual form of a Christian symbol – the Swastika – and made it their symbol. They do not own that symbol – they stole it and made it a sign of evil. But the damage is done, and no one is going to ever try to reuse the symbol liturgically or anywhere else. It has become offensive. It is a sign of hate. And symbols matter.

For those of you who are wordsmiths, you know that there is technically a descriptive term in English that connotes “insufficiency” or “meagre.” However whatever its origin, because it is the adjectival form of the “n” word, it should never be used any longer. Words bring connotations even if not intended. Words can offend and hurt.

Fr. Joe