A Cure for the Summertime Blahs

Rector’s Rambling, August 2013

Summer is here with a vengeance. Today it is 95 degrees and the humidity is dripping. (The electric is out and we are on generator power.) We have had thunderstorms for seemingly weeks on end, and the ground has that swampy smell from which there is no escape. It is not my favorite time of year.

But when I think about the good things in my life, I realize how much they overshadow the bad things, and even on the hottest day of the year, I can find reason to give thanks and find contentment where I am. Here is a sampling:

1. Our nation is free of civil unrest.

2. My children and grandchildren are safe and happy.

3. My bird dog starts training next week.

4. The peppers and tomatoes are almost ready to pick.

5. The eggplant and squash are ready to pick.

6. I love my wife and she loves me.

7. Jesus lives in my heart and my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Of course, the list goes on, but I think you get the idea. When we face a situation or time which is not our first choice, it is good to count the blessings we do enjoy. God never leaves us alone or comfortless, and when we think about it, we are much more likely to recognize his blessings all around us. Here are a few of the blessings in my life. I hope they will help you to develop your own list of things for which you can give thanks.

Helen Grace

 

George Ambrose

Margaret Rose

Our Church

Goofy Little Dogs



Ill Tempered Horses

Rebecca and Me

Sermon for Proper 8 C RCL: II Kings 2:1-14:

Sermon: Proper 8 C- II Kings 2:1-14
To be preached at St. John's Lancaster 30 June, 2013

Today’s first lesson is all about Elijah being taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot, and along the way dropping his mantle on his disciple Elisha. Before anyone asks, I believe it happened just the way the Bible says it did. I once heard a Ufologist on the History Channel who was an “expert” on ancient space alien contacts with earth give a very different account of the story. I think I understand why he does not teach at a reputable university. He is I think the same guy who says the masons pull the strings behind world powers. I hope that is not true, because I am a mason, and I know from personal experience that we can’t decide whether to serve perch or cod at the fish fry. I would hate to think that we ruled the world. If we did it really would be a mess! I once heard another man who said it couldn’t have happened the way the Bible said it did because there is no evidence that it could happen that way. It must be a metaphor. He did teach at a reputable university, but what a sad, sad life he must have if he cannot believe what he has not experienced and cannot imagine what he cannot replicate in a lab. But back to Elijah and Elisha. Today’s lesson makes it clear that it was very important to Elijah that he receive the mantle, which represents the authority and closeness to God of his mentor. He went to great lengths to insure that he might also have the kind of experience with God that the old man had. By doing so, he gives us a grand example of how we might receive and experience this faith from those who have gone before us in Christ, and how we might know the power of God in our everyday lives.

Think with me today of someone who modeled for you at some time what it means to be a Christian- someone upon whom the power and love and authority of God rested in a remarkable and unmistakable way. I’m not talking about someone who just did some good things for society or for other people. Remember that Mussolini did make the trains run on time, and even a broken clock is right twice a day. I’m not talking about the sorts of folks that we sometimes honor in our church commemorations such as “Holy Women, Holy Men,” people who were the first this or who were great social reformers or historical figures. Things like the first left handed Cherokee Indian to be the rector at St. John’s, or the priest who served his country so well by writing the religious services annex for the US Army’s avian flu epidemic response plan. I can make fun of those people because they are me, and neither of those things make me a saint, or a hero, or memorable in any way whatsoever. I once knew a real hero, who received the Navy Cross. He was a good man, but he is not what I am talking about. I once knew a man who marched with Dr. King and another who provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in free medical care to children. They did good things, but they are not the sort of people I am talking about either. I am talking about someone like Elijah, upon whom the Spirit and fire, the holy Shekhinah of God rested in such a way that to be in their presence is to be in the very throne room of God. I was privileged to have such a man as my pastor when I was growing up. While I was in the Army, his detractors managed to sack him because he was old, and not exciting, and didn’t plan great programs for the parish. But he was kind and decent, and humble, and preached the Bible faithfully and truthfully and with a quiet passion which came from years of belief and obedience. He never looked down on anyone, and was always there for the faithful and for others. After he died, his widow wrote me and told me about the secret of his closeness to God. She said that his knees were calloused heavily from the hours spent kneeling in prayer. In his demeanor and in his spirit, I sensed the very presence of God, and he changed the course of my life. I wish I had received more of his mantle, but unlike Elisha, I was young and vain and seduced by new ideas and modern methods, and pride. Oh that I had persevered and received the mantle of Wesley Bullis. I have known other such men: Dennis Kinlaw, the president of the college I attended and who seemed to me in both scholarship and piety as a modern day apostle, Loren Helm, a sort of Quaker-Methodist cross who taught me to “wait on God,” and Lowell Roberts, another Quaker, who taught me that true scholarship must be accompanied by hard work, honesty, humility and submission to the Spirit of God. I cannot claim to have received the mantle of any of these men, because as I said, I was young and vain and seduced by new ideas and modern methods, and pride.

Who are the people in your life in whom you have sensed the power and Spirit of God? Chances are they are not well known or properly appreciated. They may even be scorned and mistreated by the people around them. But like the prophets and martyrs of old, when you look upon them, you see not merely a man or a woman, or a hero or a good person. You sense the very purity and humility and fire and love of God. Sometimes it seems as if they can see inside your conscience and you grieve because you sense not their disapproval, but their heartbreak and their never ending love and concern for you. They are the ones you go to with really serious prayer requests, because you know that they pray often, and believe that God must know their voice even as they know his. On the days that you find the faith to believe in miracles, you can see in your heart how God might over ride the forces and laws of nature and time through such a person. And perhaps on those special days when by grace you are able to set aside the presuppositions and skepticism of this secular world, you can admit that you were there when God worked a miracle through this person you know. You were there when the cancer was cured in spite of every reasonable prognosis, or when the funds became available when there was no hope of deliverance. You saw the axe head float and the army of Sennacherib perish before the assault of God’s angels. In your heart you know it was true, because on an honest day you cannot doubt what you have seen.

But now return with me to the story of the translation of Elijah, and Elisha’s reception of the mantle of his teacher. When you think of that man or woman who showed you the power of God in such a memorable way; when you close your eyes and hear their voice, and see their face, and reconstruct in your mind the events that characterized their relationship with you; can you isolate those attributes of their life, those habits of their daily routine, those attitudes that set them apart from others; and can you yearn for them to be reproduced in your own life? Are you willing to be God’s man or woman as they were? Are you willing to be to others as they were to you?

God reveals himself to us in science, which the ancients and schoolmen called the book of nature. He made this revelation specific and inescapable when he came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, the Second Person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity. His life, and the Spirit inspired and superintended record of that life which is the Holy Bible, constitutes the Book of Revelation, which is his second volume given to us that we might know him. Unfortunately, many people are too lazy to fully appreciate the book of science, and too self absorbed to fully appreciate the book of revelation. And so God sends people like Elijah, and Wesley Bullis, and Dennis Kinlaw, and Loren Helm, and Lowell Roberts, and like the people who are remembered in your minds today, to give us a glimpse of the reality of his holiness, and his love, and his grace, and his truth, and his judgment, and his mercy. And then in the fullness of time he calls them home, and he calls us to take their place, to “receive their mantle” if you will.

This may well be something you have not thought too much about, and so I’ll not ask you to make commitments or decisions today about what you should do. But I do ask you as we come together to this Holy Communion, where we offer ourselves anew to God, to think about the example of Elijah and Elisha. I ask you to think about your relationship with that person or those people in whom you saw the very Shekhinah, the holy fire of God. As they go on to their heavenly reward, is God calling you to claim a portion of their mantle, and to follow them in a life of holy service to God, which will show his wonderful holiness and grace and mercy and power and love to some other person just as it was shown to you in the life of one of his saints? It is worth thinking about, and I commend those thoughts to you today as we stand and confess our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, found on page 327/358 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Receiving God's Word From Others

A good magazine: a sure sign of idleness
and a precursor to hearing God's voice

One of the real advantages of having a Deacon assigned to St. John's is that I get to hear someone else preach on a regular basis.  It is easy to go online and hear a sermon, but doing that does not give me the opportunity to hear the preacher on a regular basis, so I don't get to experience the fullness of his theology, nor do I get to develop a real relationship with the preacher.  We are particularly blessed at St. John's now, because Deacon Don Eager is a regular who preaches the fourth Sunday of each month, with a few adjustments for major holy days and vacations.  We also have a licensed lay preacher, Nick England, who is a student at the deacon's school, and knows more of the Bible than many priests I know.  Every time they preach, my soul is fed, and I am drawn closer to God.

Having other preachers at St. John's also gives me the opportunity to set aside the quest for creativity and to walk away from being a scholar on such a regular basis.  In short, the situation here lets me rest my brain- and that is more welcome than many people may realize.  Last night, with no sermon to prepare, I went to Easton Towne Center with Rebecca where she made a teddy bear for her upcoming picnic with our grand-daughters.  Then we ate at a great Italian place, walked down to look at the marvelous toy train layout, and watched kids playing in the fountains.  We wrapped up the trip with a stroll through the book store where I bought the latest edition of "Fieldsports."

This morning I got up a bit before six and took all four dogs on a run through the woods before letting out the birds and feeding Ashley's Thoroughbred, Little Princess.  By a quarter to seven, I was clearing brush, a rather mindless but very physical activity for an old fat guy who works mostly with his brain and emotions these days.  Rebecca and I had coffee at 9 or so, and then it was back to work until the heat just played me out.  The rest of the day was spent in similar activity, and as darkness falls, I feel very rested, and I can't wait to go to church tomorrow and hear a great sermon.  I know God has something he is going to tell me.

Admonition to Our Graduates 2013

This Sunday at 10:30, we will honor our graduates at St. John's.  The message will be extemporaneous, and will be customized to the occasion and the individuals present.  Each of the high school graduates will be given a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince, not to teach them how to act, but rather that they might know what to expect from others as they enter the academic and working world.  They will each receive a vintage book that I personally selected for them to match their personality and immediate plans (this year the volumes include Cicero and Henry Van Dyke.)  They will be admonished to take the study Bibles that they received at confirmation to school with them.  And they will be asked to kneel that their families, friends, and elders of the church might lay hands on them and commission them as they go forth into the world to make their mark.  The bulk of the message will be centered around a catechetical worksheet I have prepared, and with which they will be provided.  It's purpose is to help them be sure of what their faith actually is, so that they might avoid the caricatures and mischaracterizations of faith that they will encounter at university- and that they might hold boldly to the faith once received.  Here is that catechetical document for any who would care to read it:

The Christian’s Basic Knowledge

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12

 

 

The Way of Salvation 
*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. Romans 10:9

*If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

*And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:2-4
  
*Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:38

*Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:54

The General Confession: An Act of Contrition
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Apostles’ Creed

*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.

　

The Summary of the Law
THOU shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

The Decalogue.
GOD spake these words, and said:

I. I am the Lord thy God; Thou shalt have none
other gods but me.

II. 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;

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

IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother;

VI. Thou shalt do no murder.

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII, Thou shalt not steal.

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X. Thou shalt not covet

The Comfy Words
Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith
unto all who truly turn to him.
COME unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden,
and I will refresh you. St. Matt. xi. 28.
So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten
Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. St. John iii. 16.

Hear also what Saint Paul saith.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received,
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Tim. i. 15.

Hear also what Saint John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for
our sins. 1 St. John ii. 1, 2.

　
May God bless our 2013 graduates as they enter the next phase of their lives.  And may they so live in this life that in the world to come, they may have life everlasting. AMEN.