Go - Went

Memories of the Past

Lord, my eyes are always ever before me.

There is never a point in time when my eyes have caught a glimpse of the past.

They are forever positioned forward and gaze towards the present things which are.

Did You intentionally fixate my eyes in this manner, Lord?

It seems strange, that the positioning of my eyes symbolically represents my anticipated hope of being with You, Lord.

Yet, my memories, on the other hand, provide a bridge to the past. A bridge which vividly captivates the stories of my youth, the times of loving joy, and even those memories of grief, loss, and pain.

Today marks the 77th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II.  I invite you to reflect on the past, rather than the present fixation of our eyes. Let us meditate on the legacy of the Pearl Harbor.  

The Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge (Connecticut) rests on the Quinnipiac River. It is more commonly known as the Q bridge.

(Courtesy of New Haven Register)

On December 7, 1941, America went to war. The American government was placed in an uncompromising battle against the Axis forces (Germany and Japanese forces), as a result of a surprise military attack led by Japanese forces. In his declaration of war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed that December 7 will a date in which Americans “live in infamy” due to the severe casualties of American troops in Pearl Harbor. More than two thousand soldiers were killed and another 1,178 were injured as a result of the bombings. The memories of war are complicated: survivors share stories of their victories, fears, and the horrors in which they have seen. However, the testimonies of the victims of war remain unheard. The Church is called to bear witness of Christ’s love and presence throughout history, even in times of war. Today, we pray for the soldiers of Pearl Harbor with confidence in the Lord and of His promises of salvation and deliverance from the horrors of war. We pray especially for those heroes who went to be with our Lord on December 7, 1941, and entered into His rest. We also commend our America leaders who made a courageous decision to protect its people and to liberate the innocent victims of the Holocaust, by declaring war against Japan and its Nazi allies.  

Post by Shancia Jarrett

Bless

When I knew that I had to write in this blog, I was very happy to have this opportunity. It is a great blessing to be part of this family that is our Episcopal Church, an inclusive church that is willing to do everything in its power and commit to the social problems that may arise along the path that we have to travel every day.

During this time of Advent, let us prepare the way, the way of love, which is God made man: Jesus, the one who lives among us and who accompanies us every day.

Let's not forget to bless in any way we can, whether praying, accompanying, visiting, giving, praising, working, cooking, singing and enjoying every moment in family or in solitude, recognizing that the Lord is always with us, and through His Holy Spirit helps us discern and act as He pleases.

I remember once, when I was part of the choir of the church, and in this time of Advent, we should sing an appropriate hymn and we did not know the music of that hymn, “Preparen el camino” so, during practice, I invented the melody, and the accompanying guitarist complemented my voice well. Then the choir learned, since it was very simple.

Sometime later, checking on YouTube, I searched the name of the hymn and to my surprise, it was sung in the same way that I had sung it. I understood that only with the help of the Holy Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ can things be done that way and that maybe we all live by these ways but not many want to share for fear of being mocked.

I invite you in this season of Advent to recognize that each day is a blessing and that we should share it with others, that is the wisest way to please our Heavenly Father, and why should we please Him? Because as beloved and grateful children we must live in harmony with what we believe. And if we say that we follow Jesus, we must bless our fellowmen. Amen.

Cuando supe que tenia que escribir en este blog, me senti muy feliz de tener esta oportunidad. Es una gran bendicion ser parte de esta familia que es nuestra iglesia episcopal, una iglesia inclusiva que esta dispuesta a hacer todo lo que este a su alcance y comprometerse con los problemas sociales que puedan surgir a lo largo del camino que nos toca transitar cada dia.

Durante este tiempo de adviento, preparemos el camino, el camino del amor, el cual es Dios hecho hombre: Jesus, ese que habito entre nosotros y que cada dia nos acompaña.

No nos olvidemos de bendecir en la manera que podamos, ya sea orando, acompañando, visitando, regalando, alabando, trabajando, cocinando, cantando y disfrutando cada momento en familia o en soledad, reconociendo que el Señor esta siempre con nosotros, y a traves de su Espiritu Santo, nos ayuda a discernir y a accionar como a El le agrada.

Recuerdo una vez, cuando formaba parte del coro de la iglesia, y en esta epoca de Adviento, debiamos cantar un himno adecuado y no sabiamos la musica de ese himno, “Preparen el camino” asi es que, en la practica, invente la melodia, y el guitarrista acompaño muy bien mi voz. Luego el coro aprendio, ya que era muy simple.

Tiempo despues, chequeando en youtube, puse el nombre del himno y para mi sorpresa, se cantaba de la misma manera que yo la habia cantado. Comprendi que solo con la ayuda del Espiritu Santo de nuestro Señor Jesucristo se pueden hacer cosas asi y mas, y que quiza todos vivimos pero que no muchos quieren compartir por temor a ser burlados.

Yo los invito en este tiempo de adviento a reconocer que cada dia en una bendicion y que deberiamos compartirla con otros, esa es la manera mas sabia de agradar a nuestro Padre Celestial, y por que deberiamos agradarle? Porque como hijos amados y agradecidos debemos vivir en armonia con lo que creemos. Y si decimos que seguimos a Cristo debemos bendecir a nuestros semejantes. Amen.

Worship

Figure Kneeling in Prayer* 

What is worship? Is it something you do in a group about once a week, usually on a Sunday? Is it a style of music, as indicated by playlists on iTunes with titles like "Praise and Worship”? Is it something you can do for a little while and then… stop? There is something unsatisfying to me about looking at it that way. Perhaps worship is something both more basic and holistic.

According to Andrew McGowan, Dean of Berkeley Divinity School and historian of early Christianity, the scriptural and ancient Christian idea of worship was about “obedience or service, not gatherings, nor beliefs, nor song, nor ritual, except within that wider whole.”** This is more like it. In the Bible, such obedience and service is often performed with the body, specifically in the acts of bowing and prostration. See, for instance, Genesis 24 where a man "bowed his head and worshipped the Lord" or Matthew 28, where the disciples saw the risen Christ and "worshipped him.”

The simple act of kneeling, bowing or prostration not only expresses a life of worship; they are means by which we might be so formed into obedient servants of God. This has certainly been true for me. I have often found myself sensing my imperfect love and wavering dedication, longing for grace to make up the difference between where I am and where Christ calls me to be. At such times, if I am simple or just weary enough to actually do it, it is the act of lying prostrate on the hardwood floor of my bedroom and letting my heart pour through my lips, my desire to be nothing so that Christ may be all in me, that begins to close this gap. This physical expression of humility actually begets humility. In it, I dimly mirror the self-emptying Christ who became a lowly servant for our sake. I begin (begin) to resemble him more, and to resemble Christ is salvation.

Maybe getting down low on the floor to see the humble Jesus is where God is calling you to worship this Advent season. It’s where you will find me. It is through such acts that we prepare room in our hearts and in our lives for him to be born.

Post by John Kennedy

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ABEL_-_Figure_Kneeling_in_Prayer.jpg

**Andrew McGowan, Ancient Christian Worship: Early Church Practices In Social, Historical, and Theological Perspective (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 3.

Pray

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Colossians 4:2

It sounds so easy. So natural. So undeniably right. And yet sometimes it escapes us.

What does it mean to pray? There have been times in my life when I considered prayer to be those inescapable moments when I turned to God to ask for something to happen (or not) or for something that I thought was missing to be provided.; to fulfill some tangible need that I thought I was lacking.  Other times, I have turned to prayer when I felt there was no place else to go. Over time I have come to understand prayer as those increasingly frequent conversations I have with God when I can step out of all of the self-imposed human limitations that I so frequently rely upon to guard me from daily turmoil, noise and distress and simply be my true self, in front of God who created me, and fold into the one  relationship for which I was formed to be a part. No pretenses or assumptions. Just my own stark humility in the face of the One who loves me unconditionally. And it is through these prayers that I seek not tangible things but a better understanding of what God needs me to do.

There are countless verses in the Holy Scripture through which we learn that Jesus himself frequently found a way to remove himself from the enormous tension and noise swirling around him to go off alone, simply to pray to God the Father. It was in these times we can imagine that Jesus found himself closest to God and it was through these encounters that He found the strength, the resolve, and the call to move on.

I believe especially during this time of Advent, taking the time to pray through this lens is especially important not only in order to live into the invitation extended to us by our Presiding Bishop, but more importantly to intentionally come into conversation with God so that we might better understand the magnitude of that for which we are all anxiously awaiting – the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

During Advent I frequently find myself wondering about the avalanche of prayers that Mary and Joseph must have made as their wait for the baby’s arrival loomed closer and closer. Theirs was obviously a remarkable testament to faith and belief that God would provide against all the anxiety and uncertainty of what was to come. We can imagine their prayers not only for safe travel and protection but also for God’s love and support to guide them through the unknown and to ultimately better understand the journey that was leading them to Bethlehem. And soon their wait would yield the most unimaginably wonderful gift of all.

My prayer for all of us this Advent is that we find time among the tumult to be with God, in all our unguarded humanity, and fill ourselves with the strength we need to face the enormous challenges that await. And while we wait, we pray.

Thanks be to God!

Post by Michael Southwick

Learn

Growing up I was very close to my Grandfather – Papa, as my sister and I called him. Through a lifetime of experiences, he gained a wisdom that we looked up to, and he freely shared with us. His one-liner bits of wisdom stay with me even today – “One convinced against their will is of the same opinion still” and “Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” – were a couple of my favorites. While he would never claim to be the author of many of these one-liners, there was one that I think was born deep in his soul, and he was particularly fond of sharing with my sister and me.

“The only way you have wasted the day is by not learning anything”

Papa did not have the benefit of great, formal educational opportunities; so, he took advantage of being a student of life and supplemented it with a class here or there and countless hours at libraries. His life’s education seemed to mirror one of his favorite authors, Louis L’Amour, chronicled in Education of a Wandering Man.

He understood, and instilled in us, that each second, of each minute, of each hour, of each day is a precious gift from God. We must make the most of it.

The time we are graced with, we must explore it and all that is in it. We need to keep ourselves ready for the Divine presence around us. Give thought and meditate on the trail we have walked with God. As we learn about and from one another, our natural world of which we are all stewards, the vast reaches of God’s creation only visible in our mind’s eye, and God’s Incarnation, God with us, we find that the knowledge we gain serves something greater, love.

Brother Keith Nelson, SSJE reminds us –

“In the end, knowledge is not enough. Knowledge – like technology – is like a very good, very capable servant. Love is its true master. Without love, our knowledge is lifeless. In the service of love, it finds its place and purpose.”

I think Papa would agree.

As we learn, chase after knowledge, we gain a new perspective, a deeper understanding of the source of our being – our Creator, Redeemer and the One who loves our soul as though it is the only one in the universe – God; and in this we find love grows, served by our learning, as we walk with God with mind, eyes and heart wide open.

Post by Mike Corey

Turn

Photo by Bill Burkhart

1) Long ago I trained as a dancer so I leapt at the chance to blog on turning. I trained I leapt I turned.  My verbs could be an outline of my faith journey. Which is on-going. Which is why I love the seasons of the church year. They keep me turning. And coming back. To learn and leap and turn again.

2) At the time of the year when the world expects us to be most externally focused: parties, presents JOY! turn in. Let yourself say no to something. Set aside some time and space. Say Dec 9th. Let yourself be confined. A baby is to be born. Nestle in to the womb of your own sweet soul and wait for it.  Maybe the baby who needs to be born is you.

3) I remember the first time I went to an Easter vigil service. The one with the fire on the steps and the banging on the door and the literal turning to face the back of the church to denounce sin and then turning back to the altar and to God. I LOVED it. My soul needs this I thought! I need practices that embody a faith I cannot simply understand with my mind. But that matters. And that matters more and more each day if I let myself take in even one iota of the pain and loneliness out there.  I need practices and new words to give this faith renewed traction in the world outside and the world inside the chambers of my own heart.  So my faith doesn’t just stay shut up in the prayer book all week but can walk abroad in the world. I want to learn to ride this faith like I once learned to ride a bicycle, not just on the smooth pavement of a church service but over the thick and stubborn grass in the backyard on a dark November afternoon.

4) Resist the spin. Stop being turned by the world. Intentionally turn towards a love that the mind can’t parse, and the world may not recognize but that the body recognizes as living water. This at least is what helps me recognize when I am turning in the right direction. My eyes water. Literally. My heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh. This is no small feat. I am a card carrying yankee person, a flinty chip off some old Plymouth block, longing to be reborn as a real live human being. Like the velveteen rabbit.

5) I am less than human frequently. I am also very average. Usually what I need and want in order to be healed is what a whole bunch of people need and want. I’m not very original in my needs.

6) Try saying “Jesus, help me.”

7) You don’t need to understand exactly what this means to say it. No less than the Archbishop of Canterbury said this week.  “It is extraordinarily important as Christians that we remember that the definitive revelation of who God is was not in words, but in the word of God who we call Jesus Christ. We can’t pin God down.” There is so much room for the saving grace of individual interpretation and personal spiritual experience in there. So much mystery and ambiguity.  So go ahead. Be really broad-minded. Turn, learn and make a leap of faith. Let God in.

8) A hunger so deep and a thirst so specific must have once been satisfied for us to still long for it.  There is something eternal and true that we once knew but have forgotten. This is TRUTH with a capital T that we can’t parse intellectually or ever claim to own but that we can sense when we hush the hammering of the world and the clamor inside ourselves and clear a space, a womb and wait for our own quiet annunciation.

9) “Imagine a Carthage sown with salt, and all the sowers gone, and the seeds lain however long in the earth, till there rose finally in vegetable profusion leaves and trees of rime and brine. What flowering would there be in such a garden? Light would force each salt calyx to open in prisms, and to fruit heavily with bright globes of water–-peaches and grapes are little more than that, and where the world was salt there would be greater need of slaking. For need can blossom into all the compensations it requires. To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know anything so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing–-the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one’s hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again.”

From Marilynne Robinson “Housekeeping”

10) The world will be made whole.

Wait for it.

May God bless you this week as we wait together.

Post by Mary Barnett

The Way of Love

Advent is a time of preparation, but preparation for what? I’d like to invite us to imagine this Advent as a time of preparation for new life within God’s Divine embrace. I believe that God is drawing all of creation to Godself in intimate love, and that relationship with God is the most important relationship we will ever have. Advent offers us an invitation to renew our spiritual lifecycle, to engage in a time to wrestle and to wonder about how our Creator God came to us by choice and by love in Jesus of Nazareth. I hope that Advent will also serve as a time of discipleship. Together, we will encounter John, Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary who each respond to God’s invitation to come closer in their own way. May their model encourage us as we choose to press into God’s Kingdom with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength this Advent. As we take our first steps on this journey, we will discover that the pathway is not hidden, it is in plain view and accessible to all, but it does require one crucial first step: to Turn. Tomorrow, we will Turn together and begin our journey on “The Way of Love” with the expectant joy in knowing that Jesus came to redeem us, to reconcile us, and to restore all of creation to its rightful relationship within the Arms of True Love.

Post by Tara Shepley