A Time for Remembering

Rector’s Rambling: November 2009

November is a month for family remembrances. All Saint’s and All Soul’s call me to remember those who have gone before. They will be especially introspective days for me this year. Veteran’s day always calls me to remember the heritage I have received and sought to pass on to my children. Thanksgiving, while a civil holiday and not on the church kalendar, arouses in me some of the most godly thoughts I am likely to experience in the course of a year. The approach of Advent calls me to consider again what the coming of Jesus into the world means to me and mine. The celebrations are not as large or as commercial as those surrounding Christmas and Easter, but perhaps they are in a way more introspective and in some ways more painful, and more blessed than those great public feast days of our faith.

“Anticipating that the normal course of events will take place in Lancaster,” I will experience another important family day this November. I wish with all my heart that my dad could have been here for it, but God had another posting for him, and so I shall reluctantly content myself with the knowledge that one day we will perhaps be able to talk about it in heaven. On the 20th at 7 PM, given the above caveat, I will be installed as the worshipful master of Lancaster Lodge # 57, Free and Accepted Masons. Like my father before me, I am blessed to be a part of this ancient fraternity whose members are dedicated to the promulgation of brotherly love, relief, and truth to all people of good will, without regard to their political party or religious creed. If you are free that evening, I would invite you to come to the Temple at 224 South High Street for the ceremony and reception to follow. I have often said that as the Church brings me Jesus Christ in the sacraments, and the Regiment taught me the true meaning of virtue, so the Lodge schools me in that morality which has built and maintained our culture. I hope you will be able to share the evening with me.

May November be for you a time of holy thoughtfulness. May you take the time to remember those with whom God has blessed your life. May you shed a blessed tear, and go forth to walk in the way of God, and to do the work He has given you to do.

Sincerely,
Bill+

Focusing on What is Important

Last night, I attended a meeting of the William Reece Chapter of the Allied Masonic Degrees, a research society and convivial fellowship group. Much of the discussion centered around some wonderful artifacts owned by a member of the group, which he brought for show and tell, and the propensity of many in our fraternity to engage in wild and unsubstantiated rumors, not to mention the occasional "conspiracy theories" and even the occasional goofy religious concoction (my choice of words.) It was an enjoyable evening, and was over before we seemed to get started. As I drove home, I began to generalize the discussions and lessons of the evening to my faith, and to my citizenship, and to life in general. Distraction seems so often to be the normal state of human affairs. My wife once threated to get me a sweatshirt which on the front said "I have ADHD" and on the back "Oh look! A chicken!" I sometimes think there are many folks who could honestly wear such a shirt. It all seems rather humorous and harmless enough, but is it? What of that one who takes aside a young Mason, or a young Christian, or a recent graduate from basic training or boot camp, who has just completed a life altering experience in degree or baptism or training, and leads them to believe that which is marginal at best and distracting at the worst. The elder Mason who leads a young man to believe that the true secret of Freemasonry is the identity of the Merovingian line of Kings or the location of some archaeological artifact, or the Bishop who counsels a new Christian that their persuit of a deepening personal relationship with Jesus Christ is "the western heresy," or the NCO who plys a young boot with alcohol and the club scene to the degree that he or she forgets his responsibility to serve the common good of humanity as a soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coastie, or agency rat of what President and Brother Theodore Roosevelt called "The Greatest Republic Upon Which The Sun Ever Shone"; I would argue that that person falls within the paramaters of that group which our Lord said would be better off drowned in the depths of the sea. To cause one who is full of idealism and passion for good to be distracted and to turn from that motivation and dedication is indeed a sin against God and against man. I pray that I will always be on guard not to be among that number. Rather let me concentrate on the basics of my beliefs. With a firm reliance upon Almighty God, with a clear and reasonable mind, and with a genuine concern for truth and for all whom God has made, I pray that my love of liberty, of personal responsibility, and godly charity might be an encouragement and a model for many. So Mote it Be.

Winter Squash, Vergil, and Grey Skies

At six this morning, I woke up and made myself a pot of tea. After letting the dogs out, feeding, and cleaning up, I read Vergil. I never fail to be amazed at how the basic human virtues seem to manifest themselves in every age. What a testament it is to God that in this fallen world, He always manages to lead us to the Christ through either the Natural Law or the Revealed Law of the Scriptures. Given, the Natural Law can never get us there entirely, for "how shall they hear without a preacher?" But certainly the sense of brotherhood I sense with the ancient heroes of Troy, or Rome, or a dozen other places, exceeds that which I sense with some of my neighbors with whom I share baptism. I surmize that God has written into the human heart a basic nobility which reflects his own image. It may be covered, and even damaged by sin, but so often it has blazed forth in the most unlikely places. It assures us that while we may be barbarians, we are still loved of God, and in His grace and mercy, he calls us all to a higher way through every culture that he has allowed to exist and develop in all of history. It only remains to us to see our finest yearnings brought to fullness as they are completed in Jesus Christ, who is the original virtue, and is indeed the "Author and Finisher of our faith."

After returning home from work today, I gathered the winter squash and put them in the cellar. It seems like they have been growing and twining for so long. A couple of unseasonable weeks early in the spring caused me to wonder whether they would grow to maturity. Today's harvest proved the foolishness of that fear. I suppose it is the same with us. Like Harry the King, it is a good thing that God does not judge us by the promise of our younger days. His grace is so benificent, His prophetic ability so absolute, that He allows us to seemingly perish in the unseasonable times of our rebellion. And then He comes in splendor to transform us into the image of His Son. We are truly blessed.

For several days now, the rain has been intermittent in our part of the world. Earlier in the week, I planted around twenty five or thirty various pine and spruce trees. Hopefully all of them are stiff enough and pungent enough to dissuade the deer and my beloved pony from seeing them as dessert. One day, they will shield our home from any trace of human habitation apart from our family, and they should provide a wonderful cover for the deer, bird, and rabbit population hereabouts. But they cannot grow without rain. And so even if I cannot till the garden today, I rest in the knowledge that my trees will grow with the rain that God has provided.

And so once again God has provided for all my needs. He has led me to Christ. He has allowed and enabled me to grow beyond the rashness of my youth. He has watered the trees and caused the desert to flourish like a garden. Surely he is good to me, and to all those whom he has called to be His own. And truly his rain, and all of His blessings, fall on the just and on the unjust alike. Oh, that we might have eyes to see, and hearts to appreciate His love and provision for us.

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+