"beatus ille qui procul negotiis...paterna rura bobus exercet suis"
-happy the man who far away from business...tills with his own oxen the fields his father owned-
Horace, Epodes ii:1-3
I was up early this morning for no apparent reason. The terriers were more lethargic than usual, but after they bounced out the door and down into the woods for their morning constitutional, I settled in to pay some bills and take care of some outstanding business. But first, I walked over to the left wall of the chapel to turn on the propagator lights. I love starting seeds in the late winter. Last week it was broccoli and collards- this week lettuces, cabbage, spinach, and kohlrabi. After a couple of weeks inside, they will all be ready for transplanting to the greenhouse, although hard freezes this time of year can be treacherous even with double frames inside the unheated greenhouse. Sometime in the next week or two, the tomatoes and peppers will get their starts, although they take a bit more care in handling until the last frost sometime in early to mid-May.
My gardening propositions this year include plans to be a bit more intentional about row-cropping flowers to cut and keep in the house. With Rebecca back to teaching from home again, it is wonderful to experience the small joys of domesticity, and cut flowers are definitely one of those joys. I'm also planning to be a bit more organized about rotational planting this year to give more of a rolling harvest for immediate consumption, with the larger crops of garden peas, tomatoes, fruits, and berries being the focus of preservation for winter's enjoyment. The plan this year is to start everything inside, even the peas and beans. In theory, this should allow for more systematic weed control and less waste of seed. It also allows me to play with my propagator and greenhouse. When the well stocked grocer is just around the corner, one has a bit more liberty in exploring new horticultural ideas.
Ohio is a wonderful place to be as winter fades into spring. I think I'll have a cup of tea and read morning prayer and give thanks for it all.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Getting Ready For Easter
Rector’s Rambling- March 2012
This is the time of year when people ask me what I do for Lent in preparation for Easter. It is a simple question, and hopefully this year I will be able to give a clear and simple answer.
1. Theologically, I try to engage in readings and activities which help me to come face to face with my own shortcomings that I might appreciate more specifically the wonder of God’s grace which is offered to us all in Jesus Christ.
2. Personally, I try to make myself accountable for my actions, and to actively consider my habits and thoughts as they compare and contrast to God’s commands in the Bible.
3. Religiously, I participate in those disciplines which the Bible, Holy Tradition, and personal experience indicate will help me to receive God's forgiveness, grace, and growth.
And so specifically, what have I committed to do this year?
1. I will read the Bible, more than any other book, and prayerfully ask God to apply it to my conscience and my life.
2. I will pray regularly, employing the common forms of the Book of Common Prayer and those personal forms of private prayer which seem to address the needs of the moment.
3. I will receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion regularly (at least weekly.)
4. I will visit my confessor each month and participate in the Rite of Reconciliation found in The Book of Common Prayer.
5. Each week in Lent, I will meditate on the Stations of the Cross, found in the Episcopal Book of Occasional Services, in order to more fully appreciate what Jesus did for me, and for us all.
6. I will attend the spring reunions of my fraternity, where the rituals call me to consider the claims of morality and of God in my life. I will pay special attention to The Holy Royal Arch, The Order of the Temple, the Rose Croix, and the 31st and 32nd degrees, in which I regularly recommit myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
7. I will prayerfully and meditatively read one classic of spiritual literature during Lent; this year, The Conferences of John Cassian.
I hope this synopsis of my Lenten plans will help all of you as you develop your own. Remember that while our devotions and disciplines do nothing to earn us credit with God (we are all saved by grace alone,) they will help us to order our own introspection, and to prepare our hearts and minds to recognize and respond to God’s free gift of grace in our lives.
Faithfully,
Bill+
This is the time of year when people ask me what I do for Lent in preparation for Easter. It is a simple question, and hopefully this year I will be able to give a clear and simple answer.
1. Theologically, I try to engage in readings and activities which help me to come face to face with my own shortcomings that I might appreciate more specifically the wonder of God’s grace which is offered to us all in Jesus Christ.
2. Personally, I try to make myself accountable for my actions, and to actively consider my habits and thoughts as they compare and contrast to God’s commands in the Bible.
3. Religiously, I participate in those disciplines which the Bible, Holy Tradition, and personal experience indicate will help me to receive God's forgiveness, grace, and growth.
And so specifically, what have I committed to do this year?
1. I will read the Bible, more than any other book, and prayerfully ask God to apply it to my conscience and my life.
2. I will pray regularly, employing the common forms of the Book of Common Prayer and those personal forms of private prayer which seem to address the needs of the moment.
3. I will receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion regularly (at least weekly.)
4. I will visit my confessor each month and participate in the Rite of Reconciliation found in The Book of Common Prayer.
5. Each week in Lent, I will meditate on the Stations of the Cross, found in the Episcopal Book of Occasional Services, in order to more fully appreciate what Jesus did for me, and for us all.
6. I will attend the spring reunions of my fraternity, where the rituals call me to consider the claims of morality and of God in my life. I will pay special attention to The Holy Royal Arch, The Order of the Temple, the Rose Croix, and the 31st and 32nd degrees, in which I regularly recommit myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
7. I will prayerfully and meditatively read one classic of spiritual literature during Lent; this year, The Conferences of John Cassian.
I hope this synopsis of my Lenten plans will help all of you as you develop your own. Remember that while our devotions and disciplines do nothing to earn us credit with God (we are all saved by grace alone,) they will help us to order our own introspection, and to prepare our hearts and minds to recognize and respond to God’s free gift of grace in our lives.
Faithfully,
Bill+
Saturday, February 11, 2012
What Do They Want?
Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, Year B
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 12 February, 2012
II Kings 5:1-19
Just what do they want from us? It is a fair question. Some would say that I must put aside the position held by our holy Mother the Church through the ages that no man comes to the Father save through Jesus Christ. They would say that to hold Christianity as uniquely true while saying that other religions when believed sincerely will not lead to God is a hateful and narrow minded doctrine. Others would say that whatever my own beliefs might be, I must be willing to put them aside for a higher good. That is essentially what the government has been telling our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters over the last two or three weeks. Still others would say that if I say that only the baptized should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, I am excluding people from the kingdom of God and proving myself to be mean spirited and into controlling others. Others would say that if I refuse to redefine that understanding of marriage which has been held by Christians and Jews- and Muslims and Zoroastrians and Hindus and even Pagans throughout human history- that I am judgmental and arcane, and even hateful. There are those in our own denomination who would ask those questions or make those statements. And yet as your priest, as a priest of Jesus Christ, I must answer with Article XX of the Articles of Religion that “it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it may be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ, yet,… it ought not to decree any thing against the same.” And with St Paul in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians I would say “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)
Today’s first lesson from Second Kings Five is most instructive regarding what others may want from us and what God wants from us. Naaman was a very successful Syrian general who was highly favored by his master, who like Naaman was a pagan, or one who worshipped the old nature gods. While the Scriptures are not explicit with details, some Jewish and early Christian scholars believed that God had employed Naaman’s military prowess to destroy the power of Ahab and Jezebel as a punishment for their ravages against the prophets of God. But while Naaman was blessed, he had a major problem. He had leprosy, that dreaded skin disease which in all of its forms rendered the sufferer unclean and eventually led to their rejection by human society in that era. His wife had a young Israelite slave girl who said to her mistress, “there is a prophet in my homeland who could heal your husband.” Now in those days, it was common for people, especially rich people to travel to foreign places to seek medical treatment. We have documents which show the precise nature of such travel and the diplomatic protocols which accompanied such trips. But when the King of Israel received the letter from the King of Syria paving the way for the trip, he was terrified because he thought the Syrians were just looking for some excuse to invade their Israelitish neighbors. When Elisha heard about the king’s dilemma, he sent a message to the king and said, “Let him come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman arrived in all of the glory attendant upon his office, and came with faith that this Israelite prophet would pray for him or do some thing which would bring about his healing. He was furious when Elisha refused to receive him, and merely told him to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan. The General exploded! He was not accustomed to being treated in such a fashion. He named the rivers of his own homeland, all larger and clearer and more beautiful than the Jordan, and the Bible tells us that “He went away in rage.” But his staffers spoke to him and said, “My Lord, if the prophet had demanded of you some great quest, you would have complied, so why not do this simple thing?” And he did. “and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.”
Most modern scholars see this passage of Scripture as part of a larger group of stories having to do with the power of God, and so it is, but the Fathers of the Early Church saw it as much more. Ephraim the Syrian, writing in the mid-fourth century, notes that Naaman’s pride filled him with a spirit of rebellion, which is a sin against God and the leprosy of the soul. Indeed, Naaman, like all of us needed to be healed and delivered from that disease by Christ’s power, and therefore he is sent to Jordan, which is a prophetic pre-figuring of the coming baptism into Jesus Christ which is to bring all nations to purification “through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism." Naaman offered the prophet rich gifts, because in his pride, he could not imagine that deliverance was the free gift of a loving God. (ACCS V 167-68) Origin, writing in the early third century in Alexandria, points out that a man like Naaman does not, could not understand the great mystery of the Jordan, because true healing comes from the Lord Jesus alone, and Naaman persisted in the error of his pride. (Commentary on John in ACCS V 168) Bishop Caesarius of Arles, writing in the early sixth century, points out that Naaman is a representative of all of us gentiles, who presume “on our own free will and …merits; but without the grace of Christ” we cannot possess health. It is as we submit to the way of Christ in humility and are baptized that we listen to the advice of Elisha and are “freed from the leprosy of the original and actual sins… Gentiles, although old by reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although they have always been bent down under the weight of sins.” (Sermon 129:4-5 in ACCS V 168-69)
And so you see, according to our holy Mother the Church, Naaman, and all of us have received the grace of God because some prophet of God stood firm against our demands that the Gospel message be changed to become more palatable to us who wandered about in our own pride and sin. But because there was a man, or we might say a people, who was faithful to the revealed Word of God, the leprosy of sin was done away and healing came to the nations. Whatever people may want us to say or do, our hearts and our minds, our beliefs and our actions and our words must be carefully conformed to the Word of God, which is the authentic eyewitness account of the acts of God in this world. It is there that we find the record of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who is our salvation. My brothers and sisters, in this age there are many who would have us to change, or at least substantially modify, this Good News which has been entrusted to us. This we must never do. Might we, like those who have gone before proclaim the Faith we have received with love and respect for all people, knowing that true healing, real deliverance, and genuine salvation are found only in the Name of Jesus. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 12 February, 2012
II Kings 5:1-19
Just what do they want from us? It is a fair question. Some would say that I must put aside the position held by our holy Mother the Church through the ages that no man comes to the Father save through Jesus Christ. They would say that to hold Christianity as uniquely true while saying that other religions when believed sincerely will not lead to God is a hateful and narrow minded doctrine. Others would say that whatever my own beliefs might be, I must be willing to put them aside for a higher good. That is essentially what the government has been telling our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters over the last two or three weeks. Still others would say that if I say that only the baptized should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, I am excluding people from the kingdom of God and proving myself to be mean spirited and into controlling others. Others would say that if I refuse to redefine that understanding of marriage which has been held by Christians and Jews- and Muslims and Zoroastrians and Hindus and even Pagans throughout human history- that I am judgmental and arcane, and even hateful. There are those in our own denomination who would ask those questions or make those statements. And yet as your priest, as a priest of Jesus Christ, I must answer with Article XX of the Articles of Religion that “it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it may be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ, yet,… it ought not to decree any thing against the same.” And with St Paul in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians I would say “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)
Today’s first lesson from Second Kings Five is most instructive regarding what others may want from us and what God wants from us. Naaman was a very successful Syrian general who was highly favored by his master, who like Naaman was a pagan, or one who worshipped the old nature gods. While the Scriptures are not explicit with details, some Jewish and early Christian scholars believed that God had employed Naaman’s military prowess to destroy the power of Ahab and Jezebel as a punishment for their ravages against the prophets of God. But while Naaman was blessed, he had a major problem. He had leprosy, that dreaded skin disease which in all of its forms rendered the sufferer unclean and eventually led to their rejection by human society in that era. His wife had a young Israelite slave girl who said to her mistress, “there is a prophet in my homeland who could heal your husband.” Now in those days, it was common for people, especially rich people to travel to foreign places to seek medical treatment. We have documents which show the precise nature of such travel and the diplomatic protocols which accompanied such trips. But when the King of Israel received the letter from the King of Syria paving the way for the trip, he was terrified because he thought the Syrians were just looking for some excuse to invade their Israelitish neighbors. When Elisha heard about the king’s dilemma, he sent a message to the king and said, “Let him come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman arrived in all of the glory attendant upon his office, and came with faith that this Israelite prophet would pray for him or do some thing which would bring about his healing. He was furious when Elisha refused to receive him, and merely told him to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan. The General exploded! He was not accustomed to being treated in such a fashion. He named the rivers of his own homeland, all larger and clearer and more beautiful than the Jordan, and the Bible tells us that “He went away in rage.” But his staffers spoke to him and said, “My Lord, if the prophet had demanded of you some great quest, you would have complied, so why not do this simple thing?” And he did. “and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.”
Most modern scholars see this passage of Scripture as part of a larger group of stories having to do with the power of God, and so it is, but the Fathers of the Early Church saw it as much more. Ephraim the Syrian, writing in the mid-fourth century, notes that Naaman’s pride filled him with a spirit of rebellion, which is a sin against God and the leprosy of the soul. Indeed, Naaman, like all of us needed to be healed and delivered from that disease by Christ’s power, and therefore he is sent to Jordan, which is a prophetic pre-figuring of the coming baptism into Jesus Christ which is to bring all nations to purification “through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism." Naaman offered the prophet rich gifts, because in his pride, he could not imagine that deliverance was the free gift of a loving God. (ACCS V 167-68) Origin, writing in the early third century in Alexandria, points out that a man like Naaman does not, could not understand the great mystery of the Jordan, because true healing comes from the Lord Jesus alone, and Naaman persisted in the error of his pride. (Commentary on John in ACCS V 168) Bishop Caesarius of Arles, writing in the early sixth century, points out that Naaman is a representative of all of us gentiles, who presume “on our own free will and …merits; but without the grace of Christ” we cannot possess health. It is as we submit to the way of Christ in humility and are baptized that we listen to the advice of Elisha and are “freed from the leprosy of the original and actual sins… Gentiles, although old by reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although they have always been bent down under the weight of sins.” (Sermon 129:4-5 in ACCS V 168-69)
And so you see, according to our holy Mother the Church, Naaman, and all of us have received the grace of God because some prophet of God stood firm against our demands that the Gospel message be changed to become more palatable to us who wandered about in our own pride and sin. But because there was a man, or we might say a people, who was faithful to the revealed Word of God, the leprosy of sin was done away and healing came to the nations. Whatever people may want us to say or do, our hearts and our minds, our beliefs and our actions and our words must be carefully conformed to the Word of God, which is the authentic eyewitness account of the acts of God in this world. It is there that we find the record of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who is our salvation. My brothers and sisters, in this age there are many who would have us to change, or at least substantially modify, this Good News which has been entrusted to us. This we must never do. Might we, like those who have gone before proclaim the Faith we have received with love and respect for all people, knowing that true healing, real deliverance, and genuine salvation are found only in the Name of Jesus. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Remembering Milt Senior
On Saturday, we buried Milton Taylor Senior, 86, a faithful Christian and generous philanthropist. He will be well remembered and deeply missed by all of us at St. John's and here in Lancaster. With his family's permission, I post my homily on the day. May God receive him into the arms of his mercy and comfort those he has left behind.
Milt Taylor Funeral
I first came to Lancaster in the mid 1970’s to visit my then girlfriend and now wife. It was snowing heavily, and as we came into town on route 33, My heart was thrilled to see a huge American flag flying at the local Chevrolet dealership. In those days, very few people flew the flag, but Milt Taylor did. Later, when I moved to Lancaster, I learned more about this man who flew the flag when so few others did. I learned about how he supported local charities and projects for the betterment of our community. As a Scout leader and later as a priest, I saw his extensive charity in action, and the people I served benefited directly from his generosity, which was always accompanied by instructions that he didn’t need his name all over everything. And Milt Taylor did another thing or two that I always respected immensely. He was a hard driving, “Type A” man of business, and at the end of the day he provided employment for a lot of my neighbors; and in one of the toughest and most competitive businesses around, He and his sons and their employees always made sure that I was treated fairly and honestly, even before I was a priest.
But it would be wrong to stand here and paint my friend Milt Taylor Senior as some sort of a plaster saint. He was tenaciously “type A”, and my guess is that he like most of us could be exasperating and frustrating to live with or work with on occasion, perhaps even more so from time to time. Milt was a human being, subject to the tempers and temptations that all of us know throughout our lives.
But I saw another side of Milt Taylor, one that few other people were privileged to see, because I was the one who served him Communion when he was here in Lancaster. I looked into his eyes and saw him as he came face to face with the living God on Wednesdays, just about two thirds of the way back on the inside aisle on this pulpit side of the church. You can tell a lot about a man when you serve him Holy Communion on a regular basis. His demeanor, the depth of his soulfulness, the temper of his eyes fill volumes about his view of the world and perception of his relationship to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, and in the Power of the Holy Spirit. And I tell you today that Milton John Taylor had a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ. It informed who he was and what he did. He was no more perfect than you or I, but he acknowledged Jesus Christ and accepted him as Saviour and Lord. His personality, so aptly suited for the highly competitive business which was his life, was informed and moulded to a great degree by his faith. Where he succeeded in life, he gave God the glory and gave back to his community, and when he stumbled or fell, he sought the forgiveness and grace of his Lord.
And that is why on this day, as we gather to remember the life of Milt Senior and commend his soul to God, we can rest in the words of Jesus, who said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” You see, Isaiah knew whereof he spoke when he said, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” You see, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Indeed, “The tabernacle of God is with men.” For Milton John Taylor “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” And Jesus Christ, “he that sat upon the throne” says, “Behold, I make all things new…It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
Thank you Father, for receiving your son Milton into the arms of your mercy, for guiding him throughout life, for forgiving him, and for offering that same forgiveness to us all. Now send your Blessed Holy Spirit upon all those who mourn his passing. Grant unto them consolation and an abiding sense of your presence, and accomplish in all who seek to know you the saving and transforming work of God, through your Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, in whose Name we pray. AMEN.
Milt Taylor Funeral
I first came to Lancaster in the mid 1970’s to visit my then girlfriend and now wife. It was snowing heavily, and as we came into town on route 33, My heart was thrilled to see a huge American flag flying at the local Chevrolet dealership. In those days, very few people flew the flag, but Milt Taylor did. Later, when I moved to Lancaster, I learned more about this man who flew the flag when so few others did. I learned about how he supported local charities and projects for the betterment of our community. As a Scout leader and later as a priest, I saw his extensive charity in action, and the people I served benefited directly from his generosity, which was always accompanied by instructions that he didn’t need his name all over everything. And Milt Taylor did another thing or two that I always respected immensely. He was a hard driving, “Type A” man of business, and at the end of the day he provided employment for a lot of my neighbors; and in one of the toughest and most competitive businesses around, He and his sons and their employees always made sure that I was treated fairly and honestly, even before I was a priest.
But it would be wrong to stand here and paint my friend Milt Taylor Senior as some sort of a plaster saint. He was tenaciously “type A”, and my guess is that he like most of us could be exasperating and frustrating to live with or work with on occasion, perhaps even more so from time to time. Milt was a human being, subject to the tempers and temptations that all of us know throughout our lives.
But I saw another side of Milt Taylor, one that few other people were privileged to see, because I was the one who served him Communion when he was here in Lancaster. I looked into his eyes and saw him as he came face to face with the living God on Wednesdays, just about two thirds of the way back on the inside aisle on this pulpit side of the church. You can tell a lot about a man when you serve him Holy Communion on a regular basis. His demeanor, the depth of his soulfulness, the temper of his eyes fill volumes about his view of the world and perception of his relationship to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, and in the Power of the Holy Spirit. And I tell you today that Milton John Taylor had a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ. It informed who he was and what he did. He was no more perfect than you or I, but he acknowledged Jesus Christ and accepted him as Saviour and Lord. His personality, so aptly suited for the highly competitive business which was his life, was informed and moulded to a great degree by his faith. Where he succeeded in life, he gave God the glory and gave back to his community, and when he stumbled or fell, he sought the forgiveness and grace of his Lord.
And that is why on this day, as we gather to remember the life of Milt Senior and commend his soul to God, we can rest in the words of Jesus, who said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” You see, Isaiah knew whereof he spoke when he said, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” You see, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Indeed, “The tabernacle of God is with men.” For Milton John Taylor “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” And Jesus Christ, “he that sat upon the throne” says, “Behold, I make all things new…It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
Thank you Father, for receiving your son Milton into the arms of your mercy, for guiding him throughout life, for forgiving him, and for offering that same forgiveness to us all. Now send your Blessed Holy Spirit upon all those who mourn his passing. Grant unto them consolation and an abiding sense of your presence, and accomplish in all who seek to know you the saving and transforming work of God, through your Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, in whose Name we pray. AMEN.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)