Closer to God in a Garden...?

Attached are a few pictures of the garden at St. John's taken by friend Laura Sims, home for deputation from the mission field.  I think she has a wonderful eye for perception and form, and count her as a true artist with the camera.

Back in the 1980's, I remember talking with my predecessor, Fr. Robert Rademaker, about his vision for the corner of Broad and Wheeling street, where our parish church is located.  He envisioned, and I quickly saw, the possibilities for a property which seemed a bit of heaven in the middle of downtown Lancaster.  We imagined a place, consecrated by our Bishop as a chapel, where people would be drawn to meet God, and every approach to the church would naturally employ the beauty of God's creation to draw us to His font and altar.  

Over the years, people have seen the possibility of this vision and have given of their time, their talent, and their means to accomplish this wonderful vision.  The gardens and their accompanying memorial inscriptions are to me a constant reminder of the many people over the years who have served God faithfully in this place.

But the garden is also a reminder of the glories that await us in heaven.  The luxuriance of the plants, the preponderance of Biblical herbs and medicinals, and the ever flowing fountain combine with the architecture of the building to remind us that there is a home prepared for us, a place not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

I hope that our garden, our slice of heaven, designed and planted with vision and tended with constancy and love, might be a place of peace here in the heart of Lancaster, and that in it people might find God.

Many thanks to all those who donated their labour, their time, their plants, their money, and their prayers to make this year's St. John's garden and clean up day such a success.

Hermit for a Day!

To live in a cave with a dog for a day,
is a dream often sought by a boy!

The last few days have marked one of those uninspired low spots that occasionally characterize my life.  I am neither discouraged nor depressed.  I go to work and do my job and have no lack of purpose or meaning.  But the inspiration to do great things or to be great simply isn't there.  In such times the colors on the farm seem a bit more vivid and the chatter of the birds more melodic than usual.  While I don't necessarily dislike people in general during these times, I find that I seek out my own company and more solitude during these short interludes of thoughtfulness.  I generally wake earlier than usual, and avoid main highways or congested streets in town.  The garden holds more fascination for me, and the small things, the ever changing things there, draw me in like Mesmer's bauble.

There was a time when these short flights caused me to wonder if I might be called to a monastic vocation.  I remember visiting a Trappist house and corresponding with one of the brothers there for two or three years.  His counsel was timely and wise, and I fell in love instead.  Then there were occasions when I toyed with the idea that such times as these might mean that God was getting ready to call me to another field of endeavor.  But an older and wiser voice told me that far too many clergy blame their inability to weather the storms of life or to experience the kind of intimacy which really makes them a part of a community of faith, on God's call.  It is easier to find self-esteem in being the misunderstood and maltreated itinerant than in weathering the squabbles and personality clashes necessary to really belong to a particular nodule of the family of God.

Perhaps it is because sometimes I feel so old, but I am coming to see these times of lowness as gifts from a loving heavenly Father.  He knows that I can only handle so much significance, and he occasionally gives me a break from the rat race of modern life.  When I played at being an academic so many years ago, on occasion I would get tired of reading significant literature or meaningful history, and would read something totally mindless- like "Conan the Barbarian" or Lord Home's musings on his patrimony.  I always seemed to come away refreshed and ready to go back to the library or the classroom.  There were times when as an Army Chaplain I simply needed to wear civilian clothes and call people by their first names.  And now God gives me the gift of the willingness to walk away from things, some of which are rather important, for just a little while to rest and refresh myself.  The change in mood or perception doesn't mean that he is calling me to another place or another job.  It is just a way that he can give me a break to preserve my spiritual and mental health, and probably my physical health as well (for after all they are one and the same.)

And so, from a soon to be old man who has been a bit tired of late, I hope you too will be able to find a time and a place apart- and to enjoy it as the gift of a loving heavenly Father who wishes your best, and your wholeness. 

Memory Work is Good for the Soul

Rector’s Rambling April 2012

Holy Week will soon be upon us. Some of you may remember that on the first Sunday of Advent, I challenged the parish to read those Bible passages suggested by Scripture Union in their “Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan” http://www.e100challenge.org.uk . Our target date for completion is Good Friday. Many people at St. John’s have taken that challenge seriously, and I believe our level of Bible literacy has increased as a result. In addition, I hope the regular discipline of Bible reading now seems more accessible to many of us here at the parish. Many of you know Betty Pugh, a long time parishioner of St. John’s. Although Betty is legally blind, she uses a special super magnifier and reads the Bible through on a regular basis. She asked me to suggest a list of Bible verses which Christians might memorize to their profit. I thought it was a good idea, and so here they are.

Some Favorite Memory Verses:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Matthew 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Acts 1: 8
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:


Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

John 1:12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

These are just a few favorite Bible Verses. For a longer list, you might want to visit http://topverses.com , where you can access favorite Bible verses in many different translations.


If you have not already done so, I would also suggest you work on learning the Ten Commandments and Apostles’ Creed, reproduced here as they appear in “The Book of Common Prayer- 1979” http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp .

The Decalogue: Traditional (BCP page 317-318)

God spake these words, and said:
I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none
other gods but me.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth
beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow
down to them, nor worship them.

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

Honor thy father and thy mother.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet.


The Apostles’ Creed (BCP page 66)

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

Faithfully,
Bill+

Do You Believe God's Promise?

Sermon for II Lent, Year B Revised Common Lectionary

Romans 4:9-25

Preached at St. John’s Lancaster 4 March 2012

Circumcision was very important in the Jewish community in the time of Jesus and Paul. It was, like Baptism for us, the mark of entry into the community of faith. It physically identified every Jewish boy eight days old or older as a member of Israel, the people of God. I suppose that many Jews of that day, like many Christians today, came to rely on the rite of the sacrament, instead of that which it represented and accomplished and fulfilled, as the primary indicator of their relationship with God. As long as the ceremony was done in a proper manner, they were of Israel and In God. When St. Paul, missionary Archbishop to the Gentiles, wrote to the believers in Rome in the first century, he did not seek to downplay or minimize the importance of the ceremonies of the people of God, but he worked hard and logically to demonstrate that the importance of any ceremony, might we say any sacrament, is in the true reality it proclaims rather than the outward forms of the ceremony.

Paul’s legal mind was well suited to make such an argument. God’s promises to Abraham took place before he was circumcised, indeed before he even knew what the law was. It could not have been that Abraham’s participation in the ceremony, or even his righteousness in keeping the law, were the causes of God’s promise and blessing to him, because at the time of the promise, the rite of Circumcision had not been introduced and the law had not been revealed in its fullness. Abraham was blessed by God because when God looked at his heart, he saw that Abraham was “fully convinced that God Was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21).

None of this is to say that the sacrament (circumcision) or the law (obedience to God) are unimportant. They are means of instruction and grace that God has ordained. But it is to say that God looks upon our hearts in his dealings with us. He looks for people who are on the adventure of growing into that state of heart, mind, and life whereby our reality can include a willingness to see beyond the realities and limitations of this life and embrace what the writer to the Hebrews called “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). That is precisely what Abraham did when he believed the promise that he, an old man with a wife well past menopause, would be the father of many nations. He was willing to see beyond scientific probabilities and human expectations to believe that “what God had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21)

Because of this belief, Paul continues, God “reckoned this faith unto him as righteousness” (Romans 4:22). An older translation says “imputed to him for righteousness.” You see, God proclaimed Abraham righteous not because of ceremonies and obedience, as important as those things are. He proclaimed him righteous, because of the attitude of his heart and the nature of his expectations. As F.F. Bruce from the University of Manchester wrote, “Abraham’s justification and attendant blessings were based on his faith in God; they were not earned by effort or merit on his part…but conferred on him by God’s grace” (TNTC Romans 109).

In its simplest form, to be righteous means to fulfill the claims of right. Thus when Penelope mourns for Ulysses, Homer says that she fulfills the sacred obligations of a wife. When Antigone buries her brother and incurs the wrath of the state, she embodies that higher unwritten law against barbarism. The translators of the Septuagint, the Jewish translation of the Old Testament into Greek, often translated the word “Righteousness” as “Mercy,” or “Kindness.” As Professor Vincent of Union Theological Seminary and so many other scholars have pointed out over the years, “Righteousness is union with God in character” (Vincent’s Word Studies in the NT iii12).

And all of this takes us back to circumcision. Blessed Paul was writing to Romans, Gentiles who had not been circumcised. He wrote with the good news that their ability to participate in the blessings of God, their ability to be “unified with God in character,” was based not on their participation in the rites and ceremonies of Judaism, or in the moral uprightness of their past life, but in their decision to “believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:24-25).

Have you made that decision today? Are you willing to consider those things, or that thing in your own life which seems insurmountable? Are you willing to believe that God will help you to forgive that ex-spouse or that parent who hurt you so badly so many years ago? Are you willing to believe that God will give you strength , presence of mind, and persistence to take something as persistent as clinical depression or alcoholism to God on a daily basis and work a program of recovery and healing? Are you willing to believe that God will help you to push away from the buffet table or the internet console which has been the source of so many failures and so much sin in your life. Are you willing believe that God will give you the strength to walk away from a relationship or lifestyle choice which the Bible says is contrary to God’s will for his sons and daughters?  Are you willing to believe that God will give you the perseverence and strength to make restitution to that person you have wronged, and to fulfill those responsibilities you have failed to live up to?   Are you willing to believe that God is able to do what he has promised?

If you are willing to take that step today, God will meet you just as he met Abraham. He will impute to you union with his own character and give you a strength beyond what you have ever known. It will be a struggle, a war in fact. Satan will marshal all of the forces of hell to block your success. But our God is greater than Satan. And he has sent the Blessed Holy Spirit to accomplish in our lives that victory which Christ Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.

If you have been living your life in a sort of low grade discouragement which seeks to serve Christ but seems to fail with disturbing regularity, I invite you to come to him in faith today. If you have been relying on the ceremony of baptism or communion, or on church attendance or being a good person to get you into heaven, but have never been quite sure that you will make it, I invite you to come to him in faith today. The Bible says with absolute clarity that if you believe on him who raised up Jesus from the dead, if you are willing to commit yourself to the life changing conviction that God is able and willing to do what he has promised, the very character of God will be imputed to you and your life will be changed forever.

Now Father, in this holy season of Lent, help us to believe as Abraham believed, that you are able to keep your promises to transform us and give us strength to fight the temptations we face every day. Make us victorious Lord. Assure us of your presence with us every day. And help us to know in our hearts that we will live with you forever. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and forever. AMEN.

Mid-winter Musings

Fairfield County is now firmly in the grips of winter.  The truck thermometer read 22 degrees Fahrenheit when I did my chores this morning at the barn.  A light dusting of snow covers the ground, and the horses are very glad to be out of their stalls now that the ground is frozen (they tear up too much pasture when things are muddy and therefore have to stay in the barn until the ground is frozen.)  Just last weekend, Tristan, Chuck, Leo the fat Labrador and I were shooting pheasants in fifty degree weather at Federal Valley.  We bagged six birds, missed two embarrassingly easy shots, and watched one beautiful cock bird glide into the treeline when Leo got excited and galumphed out of range.  It was a good day with lunch at the local ma and pop restaurant, Cardhu, and Dominicanas.  The slower pace of mid-winter life in the countryside always calls me to consider those things that are truly important, and this year is no departure from that rule.

Monday night, Kathy Heim (our organist) conspired with me to offer evensong at the church.  It is a fitting service for the countryside in mid-winter.  After the sentences and confession, we proceeded directly to Phos hilaron by Robert Bridges and Louis Bourgeois, The lessons from the Feast of the Circumcision were answered by Crotch's Mag and Whitneys's paraphrase of the Nunc set to Orlando Gibbons' Song 1.  There was enough plainsong, simplified Anglican chant, and incense for even me, but the most amazing thing about this lovely service was its spontaneity.  I was in the throes of laryngitis, and so was unable to sing or read my accustomed parts.  Kathy chanted, Ivan led the canticles, Frankie and Ann read the lessons, Ivan and Kathy offered thoughts on the lessons, Paul led the state and church prayers,  Ivan offered those prayers requested by members of our congregation, and I merely received the gift of worship from my friends.  I was helpless in a sense, but through my friends, I met God.  The liturgy was truly the work of the people here at Saint John's, and the experience got me thinking about what might be.

Imagine a place where the Holy Communion was the basis of our life together.  What would it be like for the ancient devotional societies of the church to cooperate in prayer with the more functional modern mission agencies which labour in our parish?  Could it be possible that evangelical commitment to study God's Word might be blended with the devotional practices of the church catholic such as confession and stations?  Could the personal devotional practices of the modern west be coupled with fasting and the disciplines of another age and another part of the world?  And could God, would God, work through such a mix to send his people out in the power of the Holy Spirit to 'preach good tidings unto the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' (Isaiah lxi. I)? 

These are the sorts of things I think about in mid-winter.  Perhaps in the days to come, God will unite our hearts to see such a miraculous fulfillment of the prophesies of Isaiah.

Sermon for Christ the King Sunday: A Challenge to Read, Mark, and Inwardly Digest...

Rector’s Rambling- December 2011

Printed below in its entirety is my sermon from Christ the King Sunday. It admonishes us as a Church to participate in Scripture Union’s Essential One Hundred Bible reading plan between now and Easter. I hope you will consider prayerfully participating in this godly discipline. It will renew our lives and our parish. If you would like a set of the “E-100” materials, they are available at the Church office or from the ushers at our Sunday services.

Faithfully,
Bill+

With the celebration of Christ the King Sunday and the start of Advent, a new Christian Year is upon us. The cycle is simple, and yet instructive. We consider the significance of it all as Advent begins and we realize our own failures in light of the judgment that will one day come upon us . We hope for deliverance as we consider the prophesies of one who will come to save us from our sins, and from ourselves. On Christmas, the King of Glory deigns to come among us as one of us. Him who is the eternal agent of creation becomes a baby, born of a virgin in fulfillment of prophecy and grows to sinless manhood. In Him, the good news of God’s mercy and redemption goes forth to all nations at Epiphany. “So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In Lent, we consider the real significance of it all as we consider his goodness, his love, his grace; and contrast it with our own sinfulness. And then comes the agony of Holy Week when we more fully understand and mourn the impact of our choices upon him who is the best and the truest of all. We receive his body and blood on Maundy Thursday in that most poignant and confusing of services, and mourn on what it seems so strange to call “Good Friday.” And then comes Easter, that glorious day when Our Saviour overcomes death and the grave and our sins to give us new life and the hope of heaven. Our outlook is changed forever and we are known as the children of God by grace through faith. And then we wait with the disciples in Jerusalem for the coming of the promise, fulfilled at Pentecost when the Blessed Holy Ghost gathers us together, purifies us anew, fills us with grace and anoints us with power that we might go forth to do the work of God in this world. And all the nations will be drawn to him, just as the Bible says: “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!”

The Christian Year enshrines the historic events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, our Christ and our King. The Bible bears witness to the truth of these events, and the Creeds of the Church condense the sublime truths we proclaim in our worship. And yet there are so many in our world, and even in the Church who do not accept the reality of these things we celebrate. A few years back, Bishop Frey caused a great stir in the church press when someone asked him what made Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry so special. He said “We don’t cross our fingers when we say the creed.” A few weeks back, Fr. Bill McCleery and I had the honour of sitting under Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson, the great New Testament Scholar. I asked him what was non-negotiable for us Christians. His reply was direct and simple: “Creed and the Canon of Scripture.” We as Christians are bound to believe, if we are to honestly call ourselves Christians. We may have our doubts. We will never fully appreciate the truths in the Creed and the Canon of Scripture this side of Heaven. There is much we will never fully understand. But as Christians we are called to acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity came among us, lived as one of us, and after his cruel murder was resurrected and transformed into the first fruits of glory to show us what we shall be as we believe in and follow him. Flee those who would deny the historical nature of these truths as you would flee the plague or the destruction of war. Embrace the faith of our Holy Mother the Church, the faith of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Face your honest doubts and cling to him who is the author and finisher of our faith, the Jesus of history.

I believe that many of the problems and weaknesses of the churches in America today stem directly from ignorance of the Scriptures. While some of this ignorance is willful, much more of it is simply because so many Christians have never taken the time to read the Bible. As a people, we are far too likely to take our views of the reality of Christ from a program on the History channel or the Easter issues of Time or Newsweek. Many priests and professors, and even some bishops, spend more time explaining why details of the Bible could not be authentic to Jesus than they do teaching and living the precepts of our Lord. Some have gone so far as to decry or deny the veracity of Creed and Canon of Scripture while still drawing a paycheck from the Church. I must agree with Bishop Fitz-Simmons Allison when he names such duplicity a most dishonorable act. But there are many faithful and deep thinking Christians in professional Christian service and among the laity who have in faith committed themselves to simply following the Jesus of history, the Jesus of the Bible, with intellectual honesty and persevering confidence in him who saved us.

On this Christ the King Sunday, when we acknowledge the glory of our heavenly King, I would like to issue a challenge to all of us at St. John’s. The Scripture Union, which had its start as a missionary society of the Church of England, our mother church, has prepared a program which leads readers through what they deem the one hundred most significant passages in the Bible. The ushers handed everyone a tally sheet and Bible marker when you came in today. Between now and Easter, I would ask all of us to read these one hundred passages from the Bible. It has been said that “knowledge is power.” We as Christians might well amend that statement to read “Knowledge of God’s Word will transform and empower our lives.” Let us read a passage a day between now and Easter. Ask God to illuminate the passage as you read. Commit yourself to apply it’s teachings to your everyday life. Believe that these passages are reliable eyewitness accounts of the acts of God in the world. Call me if you have questions. I believe that if we commit ourselves to reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit will do a work among us that will transform us to the glory of God the Father into the image of Jesus, our one true King! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.

Rector's Rambling: September '09

Rector’s Rambling- September 2009

Hope springs eternal, and with the start of a new school year, opportunities will abound at St. John’s for us to worship together, know God together, fellowship together, and proclaim in our words and by our actions the Good News that Jesus Saves! I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to receive the body and blood of our Saviour at least once each week. The Faith teaches us that to receive the Holy Mysteries imputes to us an infusion of grace that is healing, and strengthening, and which unites us to God and each other. I would also invite you to attend one of our Bible studies regularly. The Bible is God’s roadmap for our lives, and as we prayerfully and humbly read, mark, and inwardly digest it, our lives are transformed more perfectly into the image of Christ. Plan on dining with friends this year as often as you can. Our Lord gave us an example of fellowship over food on many occasions, and we hope to serve breakfasts every month in order to know each other better, and to provide a friendly venue where acquaintances from outside our parish family might be welcomed into the fold. I’m told that plans are also afoot to add cappuccinos and lattes to our coffee bar this year during the Christian Education hour!
If you are blessed to have children in your life, I pray that you will bring them regularly to St. John’s for worship. Whether they are grandchildren, your own little ones, or friends from your neighborhood, bring them often and teach them by your example and by gentle direction how to worship God according to the received customs of Christ’s ancient, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Attend their games and programs at school and their clubs, but teach them that there is a way of Christian worship which is dignified, communal, and intensely personal. It is a lesson which will transform their lives. It is true that the very young might not be able to sit through an entire service, and for them and their loved ones we are providing a cry room with closed circuit TV this year, but often we underestimate the ability of our children to pray, sing, listen, and give God the respect he is due from all of His creation. Jesus said, “suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Might we heed His call and introduce our children to the one who will keep them throughout this life and into eternity. It is the greatest gift we can give them. And as I ponder this truth, a serious aside occurs to me. Some people say that we must radically change the worship we have received from the Apostles and Martyrs in order to make it relevant to young people. I’ve never believed that, and have not found it to be true in my own life or those of my children. There is a comfort in the tremendous mystery of Divine Worship as we learn that we are not the center of the universe, and that we are called to participate in something that is older, and greater than ourselves. It remains to us to teach our Children why our worship transcends time and space, and to model for them how we as Reformed and Catholic Christians historically meet our God in Word and Sacrament.
May God bless you as this strangely cool and wet summer comes to a close. May He bless you with an abiding sense of the presence of the Holy Ghost in your life, with a clearer understanding of your own motives and needs, and with a sense of forgiveness and purpose that comes only from above. And may he fill your heart with that hope which springs eternal.. AMEN.

Pax Vobiscum,
Bill+