"I Love Baby George"

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." So says the Bible.  So many times, children have been used by God to show me the depths of Holy Wisdom.  I was recently playing with grand daughter Margaret, aged four, and out of the blue she said, "I love baby George."  She then went right on with her play.  She was talking about her brother, who God willing, will be born in a little over four months. 

 Her statement started me thinking about the sacredness of human life, and in particular the life of the unborn.  It is my understanding that throughout human history, there have been schools of thought and individuals who have justified, sometimes reluctantly, and sometimes without remorse, the destruction of a human child either before birth or shortly after birth.  On paper, and from a distance, some of the arguments advanced seem to make some sense in a sad sort of way.  They seem ever so practical, or designed to allow the taking of an unborn or newborn life as the lesser of several evils, or to reach some greater good for the individual adults, or families, or societies concerned.  I have even heard some say that it would be better for the child when certain medical or environmental situations exist.  But whatever the arguments for taking the life of an unborn or recently born child may be, the Church has always stood against abortion and infanticide.  The consistant position of our Holy Mother the Church makes real sense.  If we truly believe that every human being is made in the image of God, we should do all we can to preserve and protect human life, especially when it is at its most vulnerable and defenseless. 

Along with my grand daughters and their parents, I pray for Baby George.  I don't know what he will be like, but I know that he is wonderfully made in the Imagio Dei, the image of God himself; and that Jesus Christ died and rose again that George might be reconciled to God the Father and live forever.  I know that a wonderful part of my daughter and son-in-law's marriage is that they model for all who know them the relationship between Christ and the Church, and that they have been favoured by God to participate with him in the act of creation.  Baby George, along with his sisters, is the proof of that.

With all my being, I hope and pray that all who read this, should they be faced with the reality of bearing a child, will choose life for the child, whatever the situation may be.  I know that there was a time in this country when maternal mortality was a significant possibility for many women, but thanks to the blessings of medical science, that is seldom the case these days in America.  Much more often, the decision to abort is made because of the impact a pregnancy or child would have on a career, or on a relatinship, or for some other reason.  I cannot imagine baby George being killed for such a reason.  Somehow, we would find a way for him to be welcomed, and loved, and treasured- however difficult it might be.  Might we all pray, and work for the day when every child will be carried to term, and every child loved, and nurtured, and provided for, and valued as a gift of God. 

What Can I Do For Jesus?

Christ Jesus feeds the 5,000.  What is he calling us to do?

Rector’s Rambling: May 2012

As I sit down to write the Eastertide edition of this column, Quincy, the West Highland White Terrier, sits belly deep in the overgrown red clover behind our home surveying his domain. Rawley, the Cairn terrier, languishes with me on the back porch in an exile which is completely lost on him. Last night’s encounter with some local wildlife led to a brouhaha which lasted very audibly until about one o’clock in the morning. Like most of his breed, he is not to be trusted. Faithful old Pat, the white hound, sleeps behind me. His arthritic and bony frame reveals his age and condition, but he is still a good friend of long acquaintance. And so here, in the midst of the beauty of the countryside, I sit with my friends to write about the possibilities afforded us by the risen Christ.

Several recent conversations with parishioners have focused on the very issue of possibilities in Christ. Last night at Nicks over pizza, I challenged our middle school youth to be thinking about a service project they could do to show the love of Jesus to someone. We talked about the possibility of doing some yard work for an elderly member of our church, or volunteering to do some painting for someone who can‘t afford to have it done, or planting potatoes and pulling weeds for the Common Friars in Athens (and then staying to pray Evening Prayer with the community!) Ivan and I met after last week’s mission committee meeting and talked about how many of our folks are involved in prison ministry, and what we as a church might do to help released prisoners to reintegrate into society. I received an e-mail today from a friend about how we might support the work of Wycliffe Translators, whose purpose is to provide the Scriptures in every known language on the planet in this generation. Jenn e-mailed over the weekend to ask if I knew anyone who might like to usher at the 10:30 service. I was contacted this week by the Gideons about how we might support their work to provide Bibles free of charge to those who cannot afford them around the world. I met recently with Mike and Barb about how we might continue to support our community’s National Day of Prayer observance where people of faith come together at the behest of our leaders in Washington to pray for and support those individuals and institutions which bring us stability, opportunity, and security. I was on the phone yesterday when Paul came in to collect our weekly donation of food for the local pantry, but his faithfulness reminded me that we can do much to help our neighbors in need. Today, I received a gift catalogue from Food for the Poor, and have been thumbing through it to see what Rebecca and I might donate on behalf of Margaret and Helen, our grand daughters, to help our friends in the Caribbean and Latin America. Perhaps this year we will donate a swarm of bees or some pigs.

The possibilities around us for living out the Easter message are endless. I hope that all of us at St. John’s and beyond might prayerfully consider what God would have us to do to show the love of the risen Christ to those who are made in the image of God, to those for whom Christ died. It is through concrete expressions of our love for each other and for the people around us that those outside the church will be drawn to hear our teaching, to experience our worship, and to give their hearts and lives to Jesus, who by his resurrection offers to us the gift of eternal life. If you are having a hard time making up your mind, I invite you to call me at 740/215-3900, or e-mail me at rector@stjohnlancaster.org. And of course, you can always catch me after church. I would like nothing better than to sit down with you and prayerfully seek how God might have you to serve him.

Faithfully,

Bill+

"Pastor, what do you think about Occupy Wall Street?"

Several people have asked me over the last few days what I think about the “Occupy” movement. I’ve given it some thought, and while I would never claim the authority of the Holy Spirit on such issues, I think my thoughts are relatively clear and somewhat balanced. I offer them as my own, and not those of St. John's or the Episcopal Church. I would gladly welcome discussion on them (preferably face to face over coffee- I'll buy.) I could after all be wrong, and the discussion would probably help both of us to apply our faith more authentically to the great issues of life.
1. I think that for the Church, her officers, and her official bodies to make strong political statements or to take strong political positions is extremely divisive and usually does more to drive well meaning people out of the church than it does to serve any prophetic ministry of the Church.
2. I think that the “Occupy” movement, like the “Corporate World” it seeks to address, is probably filled with a lot of very capable and well intentioned people with some very legitimate concerns. It also (like the “Corporate World”) has some very real troublemakers, ne’er do wells, and dangerous and unprincipled people in its ranks.
3. I think that any society which is characterized by a sense of division, and where enough people feel marginalized and disenfranchised to cause such civil unrest probably needs to do some serious self-evaluation:
a. Shapers of opinion need to acknowledge their role in turning people against each other and stop doing it, whatever their motives.
b. Holders of power and resources need to acknowledge their responsibility to the broader community and develop self-enforced ethical guidelines for living into that responsibility.
c. Those who lack larger scale power or resources need to acknowledge their responsibility to work within a flawed system and not seek to destroy the system (at least in a constitutional republic such as ours.)
d. Everyone needs to see everyone else as individuals created in God’s image rather than as members of groups destined to unending conflict and worthy of unending scorn.
e. Everyone needs to ignore and isolate demagogues as unworthy of consideration in civil society.
4. I think it is dangerous and often illegal to damage public or private property, to participate in large and potentially disruptive assemblies without a permit and a plan for maintaining order, or to impede anyone on the way to conduct lawful commerce or personal business.
In short, I think there are probably legitimate concerns and legitimate people in the “Occupy” movement and in the “Corporate World.” I am concerned that demagogues on the one hand and hard heads (or hard hearts) on the other get far too much consideration and control in modern society. I fear that if real revolution ever comes (from any source or point of view,) most of what we hold dear will be destroyed. And Finally, I think the Christian Community needs to work a lot harder at demonstrating those attitudes and ethics which will usher in the New Jerusalem.

More Light

Last weekend, T and I went to Columbus where he experienced the basic degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. He entered the gentle craft shortly after his graduation from high school, and before he left for the Marine Corps. While he was home on convalescence leave after the second tour to Afghanistan, he and Danny Meenach, an old friend of the family, were made Mark Masters and initiated into the mysteries of the Holy Royal Arch. And now he joins so many others as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. Exquisite and self-important titles apart, the higher degrees of the Royal Craft are designed to transmit those lessons of responsible manhood which are so often not passed on in society in any age. Personal responsibility, dedication to God, high minded citizenship, commitment to your own beliefs and principles while tolerating and understanding those of other people, and the brotherhood of man, are all taught in the higher degrees. While the French degrees of the Scottish Rite tend to be a bit more emotive and radical than the stately experiences of the British degrees of Mark Master and Royal Arch, they are every bit as profound, and their Gallican flavour stirs the soul to great ideas and greater deeds. It is good to go with my son to a place where good men gather to learn more about being better. The feel of an all male lodge is different from other venues for the transmission of values I have known. It is more primal, and more visceral in some ways. I am glad to be able to pass on to my son what I received from my father. In spite of creaking knees and failing memory, growing older has its own set of blessings that I could never have known as a younger man. For such blessings I am eternally thankful.

A Race Apart

Proper 13 The Sunday closest to August 3
Colossians 3:1-11

About two weeks ago, I received a call from a very pleasant lady who announced that she was an employee of the recent decennial census. She had apparently stopped by Briarwood while Rebecca and I were at Nashotah House for Margaret’s second birthday party. Apparently, my four decade’s old custom of reporting only constitutionally mandated information had prompted the call. She worked through each of the remaining questions very professionally and politely, and did not seem surprised or annoyed by my increasingly predictable answers. The following day, I found myself pondering the fourth question: “What is your racial or ethnic identity?” My consideration was not related to the census, or to any other modern political or sociological conflicts, real or imagined. Rather, I found myself wondering how an early Christian would have answered such a question.
Archbishop Rowan Williams, in his 2005 book “Why Study the Past?”, demonstrates conclusively that early Christians viewed themselves as “resident aliens” who sought to be good citizens of Rome, but acknowledged a higher sovereignty, that of Jesus Christ. In their letters to each other, they often used the Greek word paroikoi, which means “resident aliens” or “settled migrants.” They saw themselves as a people transformed by God and set apart for his use as a nations of kings and priests. From this transformation flowed a rigorous self-accountability and rather puritanical morality. While the members of the Roman Senatorial and Equestrian classes approved of the Christian’s high moral standards, they could never come to terms with the fact that these Christians would never subordinate the sovereignty of Jesus Christ to that of the empire and it’s representative, the divine Augustus. These Christians, who were set apart by the sort of morality St. Paul admonishes in today’s second lesson, were so committed, so fanatical in their devotion to this Jesus, that they counted martyrdom as their highest crown and as the greatest proof of the power of God in the world.
His Grace Lord Canterbury points out that in the second-century Letter to Diognetus, Christians are described as “a foreign group living in the cities of the empire (and elsewhere, ‘spread throughout the world’), distinguished by no special ethnic costume or alien language but by their allegiance and their consequent behaviour, at home everywhere and nowhere…Christians behave differently…they forswear promiscuity, infanticide (including abortion), fraud and violence; and of course, in the most public counter-cultural witness of all, they will face death for their commitment. This is not just a claim for moral superiority… More important is the role such descriptions have of defining the separate identity of the ekklesia.” (the Church) (Williams p37). You see, in the early centuries, the Church of God, the people of God, were not merely seen as a religion apart, or even as a people apart, but as a separate race, a unique ethnicity; knowable by their rather odd and unique ethical system, set apart from their non-Christian neighbors not by jewelry or clothes or language, but by how their transformation in Christ was lived out in everyday life.
And so, to return to the fourth question on this year’s census form, I suppose that I should have answered, if I was to answer, “Christian.” And yet such an answer seems strange to us today, living as we do in a culture where questions of race are so charged with passion and even violence. We are accustomed to defining race primarily by color, or hair type and texture, or certain physical characteristics. We are prone to lay aside our well intentioned national ideology of individual work and opportunity and to accept, reject, or distance ourselves from a man or woman based on the degree of their physical resemblance to our preconceptions of some group of strangers that we have observed from afar, and which we have never really tried to know. But imagine a world, or even a parish, where race is defined in terms of St Paul’s admonition to the Colossians. ‘You have been raised with Christ. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He is your life, and when He is revealed in glory, you will be revealed with Him! Therefore, set your minds on things that are above, not on earthly things. Put those things to death! Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry) will bring the wrath of God on their practitioners. You used to be like that, but you are now changed in Christ Jesus. Get rid of those things which characterized you old life: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. Do not lie to each other, because you have stripped off the old self with its ways and have clothed yourself with the new self! And you are being constantly renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. IN THAT RENEWAL, THERE IS NO LONGER GREEK AND JEW, CIRCUMCISED AND UNCIRCUMCISED, BARBARIAN, SCYTHIAN, SALVE AND FREE; BUT CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL!’ (Colossians 3:1-11 paraphrased from NRSV, emphasis mine).
Does my behaviour as a Man of God define me in this world as much as does my white skin and blue eyes? It is a disturbing question, but one that is indicative of the nature of my relationship with God in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a question which confronts us all, and which calls us to consider what it means to be raised with Christ in baptism, what it means to identify with Him in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and what it means to go forth from this Holy Place to remember the poor, to pray for the sick, and to be kind to one another.
A caveat is in order at this point. We must never allow this rigor of the early Christian community to become an excuse for feeling that we are better than others, or for looking down on those who do not share our commitment to Jesus Christ. To do so would constitute the worst kind of Pharisaism. Rather it should call us to see our own shortcomings and need of God, and encourage us to ever growing maturity, humility, and godliness. We are called by God to acknowledge the radical transformation that He has accomplished in our lives, and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we might live into this holiness to which we are called. In such a way, the power of God to transform lives will be shown to all who are willing to see His mercies in the world. Surely we will fail from time to time, because we are but sinners, trusting in Christ alone for salvation. But as the consistency of our character becomes evident to those among whom we sojourn, they will come to see us as a race apart, a community of resident aliens. They will at first reject us for our differences, but ultimately, drawn and convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, they will come to Name Him as Saviour and Lord, and they will join with us in that eternal priesthood which is the free and unmerited gift of a loving God to all who will believe. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.