Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas on John 1:1-18
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
The Power to Heal
“As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to Jesus; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” Luke 4:40
What exactly are we praying for when we ask Jesus to heal our loved ones? Our scripture teaches us that Jesus has the power to release us from the bondage of illness and impending death. In the face of our advanced medical technology this is an audacious expectation. Do we dare pray for medical miracles? When I go to visit an elderly patient in the last stages of life do I pray for healing and recovery? Yes, that is my job, but it is also my belief. It is not for me to ask how God heals. But it is my experience that God heals in ways that are both profound and beyond any human expectation.
During our weekly healing service people line up for their turn to name before God all those who need healing. Using our ancient Christian healing ritual, I dip my thumb into the healing oil and draw the sign of the cross onto the person’s forehead then lay my hands on them, using variations of these words, “I anoint you with oil in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit beseeching Christ to heal you in body, mind, soul and spirit...” As I pray, I get myself out of the way and ask God to do what God does best - heal.
God intends for us to put our entire lives into his care. In this turning over of our entire self to God we are knit into God’s heart and become one, whole, and complete. Signs of this unity with God are physical healing, psychic confidence, spiritual enlightenment, and emotional peace and joy. Our destiny as Christians is to be converted, or changed, into new creations. The sign of this change is healing. In the wake of the tragic bombings in Boston, and in the midst of our own personal struggles, we dare ask God to heal us and make us whole. By our prayer we are committing ourselves to become part of the healing and instruments of peace and hope.
What exactly are we praying for when we ask Jesus to heal our loved ones? Our scripture teaches us that Jesus has the power to release us from the bondage of illness and impending death. In the face of our advanced medical technology this is an audacious expectation. Do we dare pray for medical miracles? When I go to visit an elderly patient in the last stages of life do I pray for healing and recovery? Yes, that is my job, but it is also my belief. It is not for me to ask how God heals. But it is my experience that God heals in ways that are both profound and beyond any human expectation.
During our weekly healing service people line up for their turn to name before God all those who need healing. Using our ancient Christian healing ritual, I dip my thumb into the healing oil and draw the sign of the cross onto the person’s forehead then lay my hands on them, using variations of these words, “I anoint you with oil in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit beseeching Christ to heal you in body, mind, soul and spirit...” As I pray, I get myself out of the way and ask God to do what God does best - heal.
God intends for us to put our entire lives into his care. In this turning over of our entire self to God we are knit into God’s heart and become one, whole, and complete. Signs of this unity with God are physical healing, psychic confidence, spiritual enlightenment, and emotional peace and joy. Our destiny as Christians is to be converted, or changed, into new creations. The sign of this change is healing. In the wake of the tragic bombings in Boston, and in the midst of our own personal struggles, we dare ask God to heal us and make us whole. By our prayer we are committing ourselves to become part of the healing and instruments of peace and hope.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Easter Letter to Zion
“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to the (two angels), “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.” John 20:13b-14
Dear Zion Parishioners,
On Easter we have the opportunity, in our liturgy and prayer, to relive the joy of the Resurrection. But as the reading above makes clear, the risen Christ often appears to us in a form we don’t recognize. Mary Magdalene turned from her grief at the empty tomb and saw Jesus. But she must turn again, or be fully converted, before she can recognize the voice and face of her beloved teacher. “Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned (again) and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” John 20:16
In Scripture, turning represents a conversion; a turning toward the Holy in awe and wonder, just as Moses turned toward the burning bush and heard the voice of God telling him to take off his sandals because he was standing on Holy ground. The miracle of the Resurrection is that Jesus continues to come to us again, and again, turning our ordinary ground into Holy space.
Our Holy Week liturgies give us the opportunity to stare longingly into the empty tomb. We can name, before God, the emptiness in our lives and imagine a world without Jesus in it. This is what happened to the disciples. The Last Supper was really the last time they ate with him. Until they ate with him again in his risen form he had ceased to be. This is where we often find ourselves - caught between faith and self-centeredness; forgetting that Christ has risen, and relying solely on our own gumption to get us through the day.
Thanks be to God, we don’t have to go it alone. Each year gives us the opportunity to turn again, and see the Lord with new eyes. All of our grief, all of our sorrow, and all of our hope is met with the promise of salvation and joy as Jesus sees us for who we really are and calls us each by name.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Dear Zion Parishioners,
On Easter we have the opportunity, in our liturgy and prayer, to relive the joy of the Resurrection. But as the reading above makes clear, the risen Christ often appears to us in a form we don’t recognize. Mary Magdalene turned from her grief at the empty tomb and saw Jesus. But she must turn again, or be fully converted, before she can recognize the voice and face of her beloved teacher. “Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned (again) and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” John 20:16
In Scripture, turning represents a conversion; a turning toward the Holy in awe and wonder, just as Moses turned toward the burning bush and heard the voice of God telling him to take off his sandals because he was standing on Holy ground. The miracle of the Resurrection is that Jesus continues to come to us again, and again, turning our ordinary ground into Holy space.
Our Holy Week liturgies give us the opportunity to stare longingly into the empty tomb. We can name, before God, the emptiness in our lives and imagine a world without Jesus in it. This is what happened to the disciples. The Last Supper was really the last time they ate with him. Until they ate with him again in his risen form he had ceased to be. This is where we often find ourselves - caught between faith and self-centeredness; forgetting that Christ has risen, and relying solely on our own gumption to get us through the day.
Thanks be to God, we don’t have to go it alone. Each year gives us the opportunity to turn again, and see the Lord with new eyes. All of our grief, all of our sorrow, and all of our hope is met with the promise of salvation and joy as Jesus sees us for who we really are and calls us each by name.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
This is the Night
Magdalene’s Musings: “This is the Night”
Holy Week this year begins on March 24th with the Sunday of the Passion. The culmination of Holy Week, the Easter Vigil, is on Holy Saturday, March 30th at 7 pm. The Easter Vigil is also the culmination of the Triduum (pronounced TRIH-jew-um), beginning with Maundy Thursday, which flows into Good Friday, and resolves with joy and ritual celebration during the Vigil on Saturday night. Three profound celebrations, which commemorate the Last Supper, followed by the Crucifixion, and climaxing in the Resurrection. One way to understand the significance of the Triduum is to look at its history, recovered for the publication of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
In the Early Church (the fourth century in Jerusalem), the Vigil emerged as the center of the Christian year and the heart of the mystery of faith. Because of this centrality, converts to the faith were baptized during the Vigil, after forty days of study and preparation during Lent. Our Lenten practices of abstinence and spiritual study actually began with the Christian community offering their solidarity with the Catechumens - they all studied together in order to renew their baptismal vows with the newly baptized.
Liturgically, the Vigil recreates the drama of our salvation, from the Creation to the Resurrection. It also introduces the Paschal Candle for the fifty days of Easter. In this liturgical drama we relive the covenants God made with us and how faithful God is in his promises to us. We begin the service with darkness (like the darkness before creation and the darkness of the tomb), and light the Paschal Candle from the New Light of a fire (historically brought to the church as coals from the people’s homes). As the Candle processes through the congregation, we sing, “The Light of Christ”, breaking the silence with our singing, and the darkness with the single candle of Christ. We spread Christ’s light from candle to candle among the faithful. Then, with only the light of the candles illuminating the music, the most ancient chant of Christianity, the Exsultet, is sung by the light of the candle, proclaiming that, “This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life. This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and rose victorious from the grave.”
If you have never experience the joy of this service, I invite you to try it this year. We will have fewer readings, and more singing and participation, all with the intention of renewing our faith. You are all asked to bring bells to the service, so we can make the Great Noise, when the Resurrection is proclaimed and the Sanctuary lights go on, and we sing our “Alleluia, Christ is risen”, to the pealing of bells.
Holy Week this year begins on March 24th with the Sunday of the Passion. The culmination of Holy Week, the Easter Vigil, is on Holy Saturday, March 30th at 7 pm. The Easter Vigil is also the culmination of the Triduum (pronounced TRIH-jew-um), beginning with Maundy Thursday, which flows into Good Friday, and resolves with joy and ritual celebration during the Vigil on Saturday night. Three profound celebrations, which commemorate the Last Supper, followed by the Crucifixion, and climaxing in the Resurrection. One way to understand the significance of the Triduum is to look at its history, recovered for the publication of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
In the Early Church (the fourth century in Jerusalem), the Vigil emerged as the center of the Christian year and the heart of the mystery of faith. Because of this centrality, converts to the faith were baptized during the Vigil, after forty days of study and preparation during Lent. Our Lenten practices of abstinence and spiritual study actually began with the Christian community offering their solidarity with the Catechumens - they all studied together in order to renew their baptismal vows with the newly baptized.
Liturgically, the Vigil recreates the drama of our salvation, from the Creation to the Resurrection. It also introduces the Paschal Candle for the fifty days of Easter. In this liturgical drama we relive the covenants God made with us and how faithful God is in his promises to us. We begin the service with darkness (like the darkness before creation and the darkness of the tomb), and light the Paschal Candle from the New Light of a fire (historically brought to the church as coals from the people’s homes). As the Candle processes through the congregation, we sing, “The Light of Christ”, breaking the silence with our singing, and the darkness with the single candle of Christ. We spread Christ’s light from candle to candle among the faithful. Then, with only the light of the candles illuminating the music, the most ancient chant of Christianity, the Exsultet, is sung by the light of the candle, proclaiming that, “This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life. This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and rose victorious from the grave.”
If you have never experience the joy of this service, I invite you to try it this year. We will have fewer readings, and more singing and participation, all with the intention of renewing our faith. You are all asked to bring bells to the service, so we can make the Great Noise, when the Resurrection is proclaimed and the Sanctuary lights go on, and we sing our “Alleluia, Christ is risen”, to the pealing of bells.
Epiphany Musings
e·piph·a·ny [ih-pif-uh-nee] noun, plural e·piph·a·nies.
“A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”
The Feast Day of Epiphany on January the 6th commemorates the story in Matthew’s Gospel of Gentiles (or non-Jews) drawn to Christ through the guiding light of a star. But the story itself is filled with “sudden intuitive perceptions” that guide the Gentile Kings safely through deceptive encounters and deadly plans. These same “insights into the essential meaning” of dreams lead the Kings safely back to their foreign countries, and the Holy Family into and out of Egypt.
It is a common occurrence to experience epiphanies when you discuss their significance with someone on a regular basis. Many of you know that I am a Spiritual Director. One of the questions I always ask a directee is, “How do you experience God?” Do you find God with you on walks? In the Eucharist? In your dreams? With your grandchildren? When you have an “aha” moment with God do you write it down? Do you share it with someone?
Epiphanies come in all shapes and sizes. An inspired idea of what gift to give a special person in your life. A sudden understanding of how your parents loved you when you were a child. A feeling of deep connection with a stranger. An overwhelming desire to go somewhere, and when there have a “chance” or synchronicitous encounter with a long-lost friend.
If we sit and talk for awhile about these occurrences in our lives their frequency increases. Why is that? I have come to believe that the more we discuss the spiritual nature of our lives the more spiritual we become. It is like priming a pump. You pour a little water in, and then a little more, and the stream is drawn upward into your bucket.
Christ comes to us as Holy Spirit, Unbounded Love, and Intuitive Friend. If we learn what our own spiritual language is we have a much better chance of catching insights. We all have a personal prayer language. May this Epiphany Season enrich and multiply your epiphanies so that your experience of God can shine for someone else. And lead them on their way.
“A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”
The Feast Day of Epiphany on January the 6th commemorates the story in Matthew’s Gospel of Gentiles (or non-Jews) drawn to Christ through the guiding light of a star. But the story itself is filled with “sudden intuitive perceptions” that guide the Gentile Kings safely through deceptive encounters and deadly plans. These same “insights into the essential meaning” of dreams lead the Kings safely back to their foreign countries, and the Holy Family into and out of Egypt.
It is a common occurrence to experience epiphanies when you discuss their significance with someone on a regular basis. Many of you know that I am a Spiritual Director. One of the questions I always ask a directee is, “How do you experience God?” Do you find God with you on walks? In the Eucharist? In your dreams? With your grandchildren? When you have an “aha” moment with God do you write it down? Do you share it with someone?
Epiphanies come in all shapes and sizes. An inspired idea of what gift to give a special person in your life. A sudden understanding of how your parents loved you when you were a child. A feeling of deep connection with a stranger. An overwhelming desire to go somewhere, and when there have a “chance” or synchronicitous encounter with a long-lost friend.
If we sit and talk for awhile about these occurrences in our lives their frequency increases. Why is that? I have come to believe that the more we discuss the spiritual nature of our lives the more spiritual we become. It is like priming a pump. You pour a little water in, and then a little more, and the stream is drawn upward into your bucket.
Christ comes to us as Holy Spirit, Unbounded Love, and Intuitive Friend. If we learn what our own spiritual language is we have a much better chance of catching insights. We all have a personal prayer language. May this Epiphany Season enrich and multiply your epiphanies so that your experience of God can shine for someone else. And lead them on their way.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Christmas Musings 2012
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7
With these unassuming words, Luke announces the Incarnation of our Lord. Jesus, born of Mary, was wrapped tightly in linen cloth and laid in a feeding trough. The wrapping provided warmth and uniform pressure to the newborn. His mother would be his source of food. His surroundings, in cave that provided shelter and food for sheep, reminds us all of why he came.
Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph, two weary refugees turned away from human habitation, places Jesus in the heart of our own poverty. He came to us on the edges of civilization, in a shelter for sheep, in order to draw us back into the center of God’s Kingdom. He is laid in a feeding trough to become bread for a broken world.
The Holy Night of Christmas is an opportunity to stand in our own poverty and broken dreams and offer them up as a resting place for God. The Incarnation, so many thousands of years ago, is a promise to each one of us that God continues to rest here, deep within each of us, in the most unlikely places. While we fight for justice, freedom, and peace in our world we are asked to do the same within our own spiritual lives.
Jesus is born in poverty because that is who He has come to save. We are saved by admitting our own helplessness. How are we bound with swaddling clothes and protected from the truth of our vulnerability? How do we invite Jesus into this tender and hidden place so that he can transform us?
At the end of Luke’s Gospel Jesus is again wrapped tightly in a linen cloth, but not by Mary. This time it is Joseph (of Arithmathea) who wraps him and lays him in a new stone tomb. Like Jesus, we emerge from the cave of birth and head toward our own cave of death. And because of Jesus, we need never fear. By emancipating us from death he gives us the power to effect change in life. May we live into the change he calls us to:
“Peace on earth and goodwill to all whom he favors.” Luke 2:14
With these unassuming words, Luke announces the Incarnation of our Lord. Jesus, born of Mary, was wrapped tightly in linen cloth and laid in a feeding trough. The wrapping provided warmth and uniform pressure to the newborn. His mother would be his source of food. His surroundings, in cave that provided shelter and food for sheep, reminds us all of why he came.
Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph, two weary refugees turned away from human habitation, places Jesus in the heart of our own poverty. He came to us on the edges of civilization, in a shelter for sheep, in order to draw us back into the center of God’s Kingdom. He is laid in a feeding trough to become bread for a broken world.
The Holy Night of Christmas is an opportunity to stand in our own poverty and broken dreams and offer them up as a resting place for God. The Incarnation, so many thousands of years ago, is a promise to each one of us that God continues to rest here, deep within each of us, in the most unlikely places. While we fight for justice, freedom, and peace in our world we are asked to do the same within our own spiritual lives.
Jesus is born in poverty because that is who He has come to save. We are saved by admitting our own helplessness. How are we bound with swaddling clothes and protected from the truth of our vulnerability? How do we invite Jesus into this tender and hidden place so that he can transform us?
At the end of Luke’s Gospel Jesus is again wrapped tightly in a linen cloth, but not by Mary. This time it is Joseph (of Arithmathea) who wraps him and lays him in a new stone tomb. Like Jesus, we emerge from the cave of birth and head toward our own cave of death. And because of Jesus, we need never fear. By emancipating us from death he gives us the power to effect change in life. May we live into the change he calls us to:
“Peace on earth and goodwill to all whom he favors.” Luke 2:14
Epiphany Musings
e·piph·a·ny [ih-pif-uh-nee] noun, plural e·piph·a·nies.
“A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”
The Feast Day of Epiphany on January the 6th commemorates the story in Matthew’s Gospel of Gentiles (or non-Jews) drawn to Christ through the guiding light of a star. But the story itself is filled with “sudden intuitive perceptions” that guide the Gentile Kings safely through deceptive encounters and deadly plans. These same “insights into the essential meaning” of dreams lead the Kings safely back to their foreign countries, and the Holy Family into and out of Egypt.
It is a common occurrence to experience epiphanies when you discuss their significance with someone on a regular basis. Many of you know that I am a Spiritual Director. One of the questions I always ask a directee is, “How do you experience God?” Do you find God with you on walks? In the Eucharist? In your dreams? With your grandchildren? When you have an “aha” moment with God do you write it down? Do you share it with someone?
Epiphanies come in all shapes and sizes. An inspired idea of what gift to give a special person in your life. A sudden understanding of how your parents loved you when you were a child. A feeling of deep connection with a stranger. An overwhelming desire to go somewhere, and when there have a “chance” or synchronicitous encounter with a long-lost friend.
If we sit and talk for awhile about these occurrences in our lives their frequency increases. Why is that? I have come to believe that the more we discuss the spiritual nature of our lives the more spiritual we become. It is like priming a pump. You pour a little water in, and then a little more, and the stream is drawn upward into your bucket.
Christ comes to us as Holy Spirit, Unbounded Love, and Intuitive Friend. If we learn what our own spiritual language is we have a much better chance of catching insights. We all have a personal prayer language. May this Epiphany Season enrich and multiply your epiphanies so that your experience of God can shine for someone else. And lead them on their way.
“A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”
The Feast Day of Epiphany on January the 6th commemorates the story in Matthew’s Gospel of Gentiles (or non-Jews) drawn to Christ through the guiding light of a star. But the story itself is filled with “sudden intuitive perceptions” that guide the Gentile Kings safely through deceptive encounters and deadly plans. These same “insights into the essential meaning” of dreams lead the Kings safely back to their foreign countries, and the Holy Family into and out of Egypt.
It is a common occurrence to experience epiphanies when you discuss their significance with someone on a regular basis. Many of you know that I am a Spiritual Director. One of the questions I always ask a directee is, “How do you experience God?” Do you find God with you on walks? In the Eucharist? In your dreams? With your grandchildren? When you have an “aha” moment with God do you write it down? Do you share it with someone?
Epiphanies come in all shapes and sizes. An inspired idea of what gift to give a special person in your life. A sudden understanding of how your parents loved you when you were a child. A feeling of deep connection with a stranger. An overwhelming desire to go somewhere, and when there have a “chance” or synchronicitous encounter with a long-lost friend.
If we sit and talk for awhile about these occurrences in our lives their frequency increases. Why is that? I have come to believe that the more we discuss the spiritual nature of our lives the more spiritual we become. It is like priming a pump. You pour a little water in, and then a little more, and the stream is drawn upward into your bucket.
Christ comes to us as Holy Spirit, Unbounded Love, and Intuitive Friend. If we learn what our own spiritual language is we have a much better chance of catching insights. We all have a personal prayer language. May this Epiphany Season enrich and multiply your epiphanies so that your experience of God can shine for someone else. And lead them on their way.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
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