The Joy of Living

Hoppe's iconic #9

Today started early (at about 6:45 AM) with two services of Holy Communion and a class on the Exodus by noon, then lunch with Rebecca at Four Reasons, phone calls, a Communion distribution at a local nursing home, a visit to my failing mother, and a seminar at the church.  When I arrived home at about 7:30 PM, Oscar was delighted to see me.  Accompanied by Quincy and Rawley, we went to the barn to look after Princess, Ashley's horse, and the birds.  And then it was back to the shop to pick up shotguns for cleaning and a bit of maintenance.  And that is when Oscar, the Spaniel, came to life.  The sight of uncased guns, the smell of powder, and the intoxicating odor of Hoppes #9 was like an on switch to my little black dog.  He ran and barked and galumphed with all of the joy he could muster... and he did not stop until the guns were cleaned, adjusted, and locked in the safe. 

Winchester's fabled Model 12

He and Rawley are now asleep on my feet.  Quincy, who does not like guns at all, has retired to the loft.  And here I sit thinking about what it is that brings me the joy I witnessed in my dog tonight.  I've still not come up with an answer, but I will continue to work on the question in the days to come.  Such absolute joy and perfect happiness borne of anticipation must be filled with innocence and certainly is as  without guile as blessed Nathaniel.  I'll spend a few days on this, and hopefully, by God's grace I will find the key to knowing such absolute happiness this side of heaven.

Stoeger's sturdy workhorse, the Uplander

Rector's Rambling for November, 2013

November is upon us. The month starts with All Saint's Day (and I encourage everyone to send the Names of those departed Christians you would like us to remember at the Altar on Sunday the 3^rd to the Parish office at <office@stjohnlancaster.org> ,) and continues with the upland and waterfowl seasons in full swing as we make our way to Thanksgiving (which by the way is NOT a Church holiday.) We will celebrate Thanksgiving again this year with our friends at Sixth Avenue United Methodist Church and St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church at 7 PM on Tuesday the 26th at St. Marks. In between the two great celebrations of family and community fall the commemorations of several of my favorite people.

Richard Hooker, 3 November +1600

Hooker was an Anglican Apologist who defended the via media, or middle way, between Puritanism and Roman Catholicism, and whose book Ecclesiastical Polity demonstrated that Anglicanism is both catholic and reformed, and is firmly rooted in both scripture and tradition.

Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht and Apostle of Frisia, 7 November +739

Alcuin wrote that he was “venerable, gracious, and full of joy,” and that his ministry was “based on energetic preaching informed by prayer and sacred reading. His mission brought Christianity to the peoples of the low countries and Germany.

Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 10 November +461

Leo's Treatise on Pastoral Care was formative in my development as a priest. What a shame it is no longer required reading in the seminaries.

Martin of Tours, Soldier, Monk, and Bishop, 11 November +397

Martin was a Roman soldier who left the army and founded a rural monastery after sensing a conflict between his military duties and his faith. Perhaps his best known act of compassion was giving half of his Army issue uniform cloak to a beggar, and receiving Christ's blessing for his mercy. He was one of the first to bring Christianity to the rural people of what is now France. A soldier and a country boy- it doesn't get much more inspiring than that!

Queen Margaret of Scotland, 16 November +1093

She was a woman of prayer and good to the poor. She seemed to influence all those around her for good, and is considered to have brought holiness and civilization to the court of Malcolm III.

Edmund of East Anglia, King and Martyr, 20 November +870

Loved by his subjects because he cared for the poor and suppressed wrong doing in his dominions, he was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and beheaded by the Danes because he refused to renounce Jesus Christ and his responsibility to the people of his kingdom.

Isaac Watts, 25 November +1748

His hymns filled my boyhood and I love them even today.

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

I hope that this traditional month for remembrance, family, and the hunt will call us all to remember the blessings God has given us by giving us each other. AMEN!

Sermon for RCL 24 C, Luke 8:1-3

Sermon for the XXII Sunday after Pentecost, RCL 24C

To be preached at St. John's Lancaster on 20 Oct 2013, God willing.

Luke 8: 1-3

Jesus with his followers on the road in Galilee
Does anyone know what film this shot is from?

Most of us here have been in church for a long time, and we have heard the explanation of this parable of the seed several, if not many times. And so today, I have elected to look at the brief prologue to this parable of Jesus. In it, we see the purpose of Jesus as he traveled on this earth, “to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God.” That immediately raises the question, exactly what is the “Good News of the Kingdom of God?” To answer that question properly, we need to travel back to the beginning of human history. God, in his beneficent mercy and love, created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them and declared them to be good. He then created us in his image with reason, and freewill, and the ability to give and receive love, that we might have purpose as the stewards of the garden which is this earthly paradise. The Scriptures tell us that in those early days, he walked with our ancestors in the garden and communed with them directly. But then the most terrible thing happened. Following the example of those angels who had rebelled against God, and at the instigation of their leader, our grandmother Eve and our grandfather Adam succumbed to temptation and partook of the forbidden fruit. Their decision to rebel by believing that their way was better than God's way set the stage for tragedies unforeseen and broke their direct fellowship with God. When God pronounced the consequences of their actions to the players involved, he promised Eve that one day one would be born of her seed who would destroy the power of the tempter and overcome death itself to restore us to full fellowship with God. The Bible in another place calls him “the second Adam,” who will restore our species to God's original plan and purpose, banish death forever, and restore the paradise that was. Over the centuries prophets, inspired by God, spoke of the one who was to come and accomplish these wonderful things. It was not only the prophets of the Jews who heard this truth of the deliverer. Pagans, and philosophers of other nations, like the Magi of Christ's birth narratives, discerned through the revelation contained in the design of nature and in the yearnings which led to their own myths and legends and understandings that God in his love would give all people the opportunity to be restored to him. Finally, St. John the forerunner, the cousin of Jesus Ben Joseph, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, declared that the Kingdom of God was at hand as he declared “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world! Repent, and be baptized for the remission of sins, for the Kingdom of Heaven is come!” That in a nutshell is the Good News. The prophesies are fulfilled, The deliverer has come, and we proclaim deliverance to those held captive in those illnesses and behaviours, and addictions, and habits, and systems which are contrary to God's way in Paradise. The Kingdom is come, and Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, is the means by which God has brought this deliverance, this reinstatement with God, this salvation into the world.

At this point, we must insert a caveat, “let the buyer beware.” The Good News of the kingdom of God is a conscious and rational belief and affirmation of the fact that God the Father, the first person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, rebooted all of time and history by sending Jesus, the second person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, to live and die and be resurrected as a real live human being, joining in a mystical but real way the divine and human, that our sins might be washed away and we might stand justified before God through the efficacy of his own promises and love. The evidence of this transformation is demonstrated to all who will put aside their presuppositions and rebellious attitudes and ways and will see the difference this truth has made as the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, maintains and inspires and enables those who have received this wondrous Good News to live as the Children of God. There are those among us in the modern church, and they are many, who downplay, redefine, or even deny the theological and historical truth that is the Good News of the Kingdom of God. They substitute for it those good works which necessarily flow from the transformation we experience when we acknowledge the truth of the Good News and confess and forsake our sins, purposing to live our lives in accordance with Biblical teachings. They do accomplish many good things, but they fundamentally redefine the nature of our Faith, and they deny the historic proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Flee their teachings as you would a fire or an act of senseless violence. Their message seems so benign, because it is cloaked in good works, but the ultimate impact of their teaching is eternal, because it fundamentally denies the role of Christ in our salvation and bypasses the revealed truth of Scripture.

With the “Good News” identified, and the caveat explained, I think it is instructive to look at the examples of the people who traveled with Jesus that day. In their lives and in the choices they made, they give us some idea of how we might, indeed how we ought to do evangelism.

1. The proof of their message was in their transformed lives. St. Luke tells us that several of them had been set free from evil spirits and infirmities. Like so many others throughout history, people who had known them in earlier days noticed a change that could not be accounted for apart from God's touch. Their behaviour and the difference in their new lives gave credence to their message. Does the constancy and holiness of your life prove the reality of God's transforming love?

2. They proclaimed the “Good News” wherever they went, and were not ashamed to be identified with Jesus. Are you and I willing to do as much? I'm not talking here about the right to wear a t-shirt or a piece of jewelry, or to have a poster in my cubicle, although those things could be construed to be a part of this. I am talking about a sense of morality, of right and wrong, which stands up to selfish comments or control oriented behaviour in family, social, or business relationships. I think of a willingness to be the odd man or woman out when you stand against cruel humor presented at the expense of those who cannot defend themselves. I think of the willingness to say, “I cannot participate in that program or course of action because it conflicts with my faith,” whatever the personal cost may be. I think of the determination to do what is right and just, remembering that in Hebrew theology those two concepts are flip sides of the same coin. I think of that quiet witness as I make the sign of the cross in a restaurant and bow my head for prayer, or calmly read my Bible on an airplane or in a park. I think of taking the time to commit my own transformation at God's hand into a rational and communicable form, and my willingness to share with others what the Father has done for me through Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Ghost.  Are you willing to be identified as a sibling of Jesus, wherever you go?

3. They supported Jesus and his ministry with their resources. Certainly money was a part of that. It takes money to take a crowd of two or three dozen people on a multi-day walking tour of the Holy Land, or of anyplace else. But they also gave of their time, and their energy, and their influence. Am I, are you, willing to back up your words with money, to donate your time and talent, to invest your emotional and intellectual energy, and to expend your influence, to spend down your quid-pro-quo resources, so that all people might hear the “Good News of the Kingdom of God?” Funding good works, which necessarily flow from the Good News is a part of this, but are you willing to fund and staff getting out the story that “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life?” Good works are necessary, and we are called to support them, but we must always remember that it is the message of God's love and grace which transforms and delivers us from sin. The good works follow. Do you support those missions and agencies which proclaim that “Good News” to those who have not yet acknowledged Jesus as Saviour and Lord?

That pretty much covers the prologue for today. I hope it has given you some things to think about, to pray about, and to act upon. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
 

Shelling Beans

I am off this morning for Columbus Day, so I decided to get on with some of the fall garden chores.  The terriers were down in the woods doing what terriers do, so Oscar and I moseyed up to the barn, and after turning out Princess and the girls, applied ourselves to picking through the overgrown jungle that is a late season garden looking for beans.  Some of them were planted for winter soup, and others just got past their prime or were missed on earlier pickings.  A few were just left to dry after everyone I know got tired of eating green beans.  Today was the first pass at harvesting them.  It is a mindless task, but I've always found it relaxing.  There are so many varieties, and they all have their own story.  My favorite variety is a small black bean often called "Trail of Tears", because according to legend, the Cherokee brought it with them from the Carolinas to Oklahoma and Kansas.  If our family histories are anywhere near accurate, some of my folks were on that trip.  But there are the prolific and relatively newer varieties like Kentucky Wonder, and even beans that are reputed to have come to the new world on the Mayflower.  Others supposedly kept Irish farmhands alive during the great famine.  There are as many stories as there are varieties, and as many colors and patterns as one can imagine!

I suppose the best thing about shelling beans is that it gives one time to think.  Time seems to vanish and run into eternity as the bottom of the empty Tupperware container slowly disappears beneath the shining promise of winter soups.  There is time for God, and for old friends nearly forgotten, and for pondering that which is truly important in life.  So if you've never grown beans, I certainly recommend it.  They can be somewhat ignored and still be prolific.  Delicious when young, meaty when middle aged, and hearty when dried for soups or frying, they are easy to grow, satisfying to see, and are always welcome to grace my table.  If your back is old like mine, get the climbers.  They are the easiest to pick.  And in case you hadn't guessed already, Oscar really wasn't much help, but it is always good to spend time with a friend.

Jim Karlovec's English Cocker Spaniels

Oscar (in left foreground under mirror) after the shoot at Federal Valley near Amesville, Ohio

I've noticed several queries on my blog tracker of late for "Jim Karlovec's English Cocker Spaniels, and so I thought I'd post a report on Oscar's progress. Yesterday, we took Leo the Lab  and Oscar the eight month old Cocker to Federal Valley for a shoot (his second at that location.)  Oscar is bold and biddable, and isn't afraid of brush at all.  It was warm yesterday, and he got into some tall grass early. As a result, he found birds well but didn't have the steam to get a full sized farm raised bird all the way back to hand without some coaxing (he had no trouble on an earlier shoot at the same location.)  That was my fault and not his.  We shot three marked birds for him and he found them all quickly, marked them well, and went straight to where they fell.  He had been playing with feathered bumpers a bit on retrieves during drills, but did not chew up the birds at all on this shoot. 

Last week, I had him on the streams at a local state park and he did a great job in the water when we flushed wood duck walking up the stream.  If the season had been in, we would have eaten duck that night.  He handles full sized Dokken dummies well in water and on land, and has retrieved hen pheasants, doves, and pigeon cleanly to hand. 

He is very sociable and gets on well with other dogs and people.  He quarters naturally, will retrieve left and right, or forward and to the side to placed feathered bumpers and bring the first back before waiting to be sent for the second.  He hunts close and fast.  He hups to voice, whistle, and hand sign, and recalls to whistle and hand sign.  He learns quickly, and I don't anticipate any real trouble getting him to hup to shot and flush.  He is very birdy, and loves to pick up the odd rabbit as well.

Oscar on the back porch

If anyone is looking for an English Cocker Spaniel, I would highly recommend Jim Karlovec's dogs from Flushing Star Kennel  http://www.flushingstar.com/.  Oscar is a joy in the house and works well in the field.  I'm looking forward to many great hunts with this little guy.  Oh yes, I took Oscar up to Jim for about a month and a half to get ready for his first season, and Jim is a great help when it comes to answering questions about Oscar's ongoing training and working the dog. 

Sermon for Proper 21C Revised Common Lectionary; Jeremiah 29:1-9

To be Preached at St. John's Lancaster on October 13th, 2013, God willing.

Looking to the Future!

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking through an old year book. The categories were very instructive: Most likely to succeed, Most likely to make a million dollars, best looking, and the list goes on. Needless to say, none of those prophesies came to pass. We all had our dreams, and most of us are now doing something different. Things were so different then. It was assumed that a few of us would go off to college, but most of us would either go to work for General Motors or stay on the family farm. Well, most of the family farms are long since amalgamated and rationalized, and then we all know about GM! But if things didn't turn out like we thought, and perhaps hoped they might, I can't imagine the vast different between the dreams and realities of the people of Israel and Judah in the sixth century before Christ. They had been defeated in battle and carried off into captivity. Their rebellions, what today we would call movements of national liberation, had been crushed ruthlessly. Their economy was not merely in shambles, it had ceased to exist. It was, as the kids sometimes say, a bad time to be them.

And in the midst of the loss of everything they held dear, God spoke to them through the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Marry wives and beget sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters and you may increase there and not dwindle away. Seek the welfare of any city to which I have carried you off, and pray to the Lord for it; on its welfare your welfare will depend. For these are the words of the Lord of Hosts of the God of Israel: Do not be deceived by the prophets or the diviners among you, and do not listen to the wise women whom you set to dream dreams. They prophesy falsely to you in my name; I did not send them. This is the very word of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29: 5-9 NEB)

You see, there were lots of people who had a significant stake in agitating for factional rebellion and alignment in the Jewish community in those days. People sought to regain wealth and power lost, or to control the present situation, or to reinstate the glories of the past, or to control the direction of the future. Some were patriots and some were scoundrels, some were motivated by love of God and Country, and some were motivated by lust for power and wealth and celebrity. But God spoke plainly through the prophet. In a sense he said “Let go and let God.” I think it was Stephen Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People who pointed out that many people spend most of their time fussing over things that are beyond their control, things which sometimes do not even affect them. How much happier we would be, he muses, if we would spend more time developing specific strategies for addressing real problems which impact us directly and over which we can assert some influence.

How many of us live in the past, attempting to wish what is not into existence? I once knew a man who loved to watch the movie “Gettysburg.” He would watch it over and over, hoping, he said, “that it would end differently next time.” Perhaps some of us are like my friend, always going back to the past to revisit what was done, and drawing motivation and anger and brooding darkness from things which cannot be changed. I daresay on the basis of today's Old Testament lesson that it is time for us to find God's healing for the hurts and disappointments of the past, and to live in the present, even as we look to the future, with some semblance of trust in God, hope in his providence, and optimism that we who are made in his image can and will find a way to live together with some degree of mutual respect.

But like the Children of Israel, we are beset by forces that would cause us to dwell in the hurtful past, remembering every slight and questioning the motives of every good deed. Don't listen to such folks. Whether they are on the television or radio or in the paper, or they are your loud mouthed and opinionated brother-in-law does not really matter. Whether you voted for them or not does not really matter. Whether or not you agree with them does not really matter. We know who the people are who drag us down and make us negative. They cause us to distrust our neighbors and hold onto grudges for generations. Now this is not to say that we should live in a Polyanish world where we deny the reality of the evil around us. We are called by the Scriptures to “be wise as serpents-----but gentle as doves.” Some people are threats to the general welfare- and until Jesus comes, there are plenty of good deeds done merely to manipulate and control people. But we as Christians are called to be realistic optimists, rationally assessing the nature of things around us, and overcoming our emotional attachments which so often call us to a sense of victimhood and anger. 

You are made in God's image, rational creatures, with the capacity to love and be loved, and invited by God to participate with him in the very act of creation. Jesus said time and again “be not afraid, for I am with you.” He still says it, and he is with us all the days of our lives. So, don't let anyone, human or demonic, so wrap you up in past pain or ongoing sense of loss, that you are crippled by grief or anger or negativity or pessimism. It will only make you miserable and chase away those who would like to be your friends. Rather calmly and objectively face the realities in your life, and get on with the business of building homes and families and communities, and growing gardens, and passing on to the next generation that faith and those values which bind us together and bring us to greatness. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN

Breakfast At Briarwood

The View at Breakfast this Morning
 

What started as a very normal week became a very hectic week when my friend Jim interrupted Wednesday morning's Bible study in the church library to announce, "Bill, your Mom is in the hospital and Rebecca will meet you there."  My well planned schedule was cast to the winds, and as I drove to the hospital, I made calls to insure that my responsibilities were covered for the next couple of days.  Mom is recuperating nicely and hopes to be released today, and once again I give thanks for my good neighbors at Fairfield Medical Center here in Lancaster.  On Thursday, I was able to make the trip to our Diocesan Retreat Center at the Proctor Farm to receive Communion from my Bishop and attend the Clergy Day workshop.  And then, things got wonderfully interesting.

I had decided that on the way home, I would stop for some dove shooting at Deer Creek State Park with Oscar.  It was raining and the corn had been removed in the area I had targeted, so the doves were down.  I drove over to a spot which on the map had looked like a stand of mature oak and hickory trees to find that it was merely a young stand of softwoods, and so squirrel hunting was out as well.  Then, as a consolation, I decided to take young Oscar and walk down a couple of small creeks in the area to see if I could find any wood duck.  We were not disappointed!  We found two small flocks, or perhaps gaggles of ducks, and Oscar was in heaven.  This was his first introduction to them, While I was unable to shoot because the season is not yet in, I believe I have the makings of a pretty good water dog.  He did not settle down until we got back to Circleville! 

Oscar at Breakfast this Morning
 

And so here we are at breakfast this morning after a good night's sleep.  Two eggs soft boiled, bacon, toast with Rebecca's spiced rum peach jelly, and tea completed the meal.  Surely there is no place like home, except heaven, and that is after all home, and what we try to imitate in the design and temper of those places where we live and worship in this life.  Soon, I will go into town to see how Mom is doing, and then perhaps to AW Marion State Park for a bit of fishing. But until then, I will settle in with my Bible and enjoy this little bit of heaven we call Briarwood.