The Bible - I heard something the other day that encapsulated my thinking about this set of books (for it is more than one, written at many different times by many different authors). This person said "It is like our family albums". Pictures, clippings, and mementos of encounters with a common experience. It tries to tell of encounters with the Holy and make sense of the Divine-Human relationship. Like the family album we may have stories about the pictures and know the names of the people we are viewing but there is always a level that cannot be seen or understood because we were not there when the photo was taken or the event occurred. When I read the Bible with this sort of lens - I stop fighting with it and using it like a template. When it contradicts itself, I can see that this is because there were different points of view about events, like when people are interviewed after a wreck and remember totally different versions of the same event. One person said about Revelation - it is like Modern Art - trying to convey ideas through metaphors, feelings, and images - not representational or photographic. When we try to apply scientific, rational principles to works of art or scripture we miss the point and end up analyzing the paint.

PEACE
Is peace possible? The news lately is so horrific and it seems we are in a death spiral. It is hard to keep from sinking into a morass of sadness over humankind's inability to live together on this small fragile planet. It helps me to get in touch with the words and music of those who have lived through other times of suffering. Here are the words of the former Archbishop of South Africa Desmond Tutu:

"We have seen those who formerly seemed invincible fall and bite the dust too. We give thanks to God that goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness and life is stronger than death-that victory is ours through Jesus Christ. Might will never be right. God has made us for goodness, for love, for compassion, for peace, for laughter, for gentleness, for sharing and caring-and God is in charge."

Bishop Tutu's victory did not come from returning suffering on those who made him suffer but is a victory of love over evil. It is the only way all this terror will stop.

For music I recommend the BBC Radio 3. On Wednesdays they broadcast Choral Evensong from various churches around the UK. It is cached so even if you miss it live you can hear it during the week.

Here is a fun quiz to find out What Christian Theologian You Are.

"We reject the false doctrine that the church could have permission to hand over the form of its message and of its order to whatever it itself might wish or to the vicissitudes of the prevailing ideological and political convictions of the day."

You are Karl Barth! You like your freedom, and are pretty stubborn against authority! You don't care much for other people's opinions either. You can come up with your own fun, and often enough you have too much fun. You are pretty popular because you let people have their way, even when you have things figured out better than them.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

As I have mentioned before, most days I try to post some remarks on the Daily Office - consecutive readings of the Bible from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. Last week I was reading the passage from Mark 10 and it occurred to me that it was the disciples fear that made them ask for status with Jesus in his future realm. Seeking status is a response that comes when we are fearful of our position with others. Those who work with group dynamics say that all persons have concerns about Inclusion, Affection and Control. Will I be accepted, will I be liked, Will my opinions be valued? The satisfaction of these needs by position and status can become almost like a drug. As I thought about this I wrote:

Fear seeks status
Faith seeks service

Whenever I start obsessing about what others' think or where I belong, it is a sign that I have moved into that place of fear. When I remember that I am created in the image of God and I am created to be in the place and this time - the fear recedes, I can breathe and act without fear.

Something for fun and Harry Potter fans. Take the quiz at the site below.


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Interesting facts about the Defense of Marriage folks:
*Ronald Reagan - divorced the mother of two of his children to marry Nancy Reagan who bore him a daughter only 7 months after the marriage.
*Bob Dole - divorced the mother of his child, who had nursed him through the long recovery from his war wounds.
*Newt Gingrich - divorced his wife who was dying of cancer.
*Dick Armey - House Majority Leader - divorced
*Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas - divorced
*Gov. John Engler of Michigan - divorced
*Gov. Pete Wilson of California - divorced
*George Will - divorced
*Sen. Lauch Faircloth - divorced
*Rush Limbaugh - Rush and his current wife Marta have six marriages and four divorces between them.
*Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia - Barr, not yet 50 years old, has been married three times. Barr had the audacity to author and push the "Defense of Marriage Act." The current joke making the rounds on Capitol Hill is "Bob Barr...WHICH marriage are you defending?
*Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York - divorced
*Sen. John Warner of Virginia - divorced (once married to Liz Taylor.)
*Gov. George Allen of Virginia - divorced
*Henry Kissinger - divorced
*Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho - divorced
*Sen. John McCain of Arizona - divorced
*Rep. John Kasich of Ohio - divorced
*Rep. Susan Molinari of New York - Republican National Convention Keynote Speaker - divorced
Don't let homosexuals destroy the institution of marriage. The Christian Republicans are doing a fine job without anyone's help!
My mother was a Republican (although she was having a few doubts towards the end of her life). She is probably storming about heaven over the latest word from Washington. She was fiercely pro-choice when abortion was illegal. She helped people find safe doctors so they did not have to go to the back alley butchers. And now? What has happened to my mother's Republican Party? It used to be the party of individual rights and fiscal responsibility. Now it is taking away personal freedom and spending money like there is no tomorrow. The Patriot Act, creeping destruction of women's rights through anti-choice legislation, giving money to the rich and making life harder for the poor, and now muddying up the Constitution with unnecessary amendments to "protect" marriage from same sex couples who want to uphold the tenets of marriage. Economic strain is the number one cause of difficulties in marriage. If President Bush and our Republican Senators and Representatives want to protect marriage - how about a living wage, jobs, and health care to relieve the financial strain on our citizens instead of wasting time with amendments to the Constitution that will do nothing but take away more rights of citizens. If religious organizations do no agree with same sex marriage, they do not have to bless these relationships. Maybe while we are busy with this we should separate civil unions and religious ceremonies rather than installing the beliefs of religious groups into the Constitution.

Everybody else is talking about Mel's slasher movie for Christians or Nightmare on Golgotha Street (as one son calls it) - so guess I should weigh in. What is interesting to me is the fervor that it has evoked from some Christians. When I say I am not going - there is this reaction of "are you afraid to see the truth?" or that somehow I am not a real Christian if I don't want to see an hour of fake extreme violence. I know about crucifixion and have seen enough real violence on TV on people around the world that I do not need to pay Mel Gibson to see this. The crucifixion is one part of the whole Jesus story - birth, life, death and resurrection - an amazing witness of God fully entering into the life of humanity revealing that there is no place where the Holy is not present. God suffers as humankind suffers. This is the major act that makes me follow Christ. I am not a believer in the theory that Jesus had to die because humans are so sinful - only the perfect sacrifice can balance the scales with God. For me, Incarnation - God entering human life and showing us how to reclaim our original blessing of being created in the image of God through agape (ever flowing love) - loving God and our neighbor as ourselves - is the central message. The current controversy puzzles me as there seems to be no room for critical examination of the movie and its portrayal - there is this sense of either you are for it or you are a tool of Satan. YMMV

Most every day I send out a daily meditation on scripture. It follows the Daily Office readings from the Episcopal Church but I print the text so you can read it without any experience with lectionaries - series of readings from the Bible. To receive them send a blank email to dailyoffice-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Here is an example from last Friday:

I have become like a vulture in the wilderness, *
like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake and groan; *
I am like a sparrow, lonely on a house-top. Psalm 102:6-7

Commas of crows on the branch over a frozen river
Vultures circling seeking food from the snow covered landscape
Owl sleeping rests from bearing her nightly message of death
Song of the sparrow pierces the winter air
Home, where is home?

Sermon for February 15, preached at Trinity Church, Concord MA. It is in mp3. The lessons for the day were Epiphany 6, Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 1, Luke 6:17-26, focusing mainly on the blessings and woes of Luke's sermon on the plain. (Not that pilot and his sermon on the plane!).

This is an article that I wrote for our Diocesan Newspaper The Spirit of Wyoming
One More Safe Space
Six months after General Convention, I am reflecting on the words of our prayer for Good Friday, "O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, ... (Book of Common Prayer p. 280). Well, maybe it has not been so tranquil! But those who have felt cast down have been brought into fullness of membership as baptized participants in our church.
As one of Wyoming's Deputies to General Convention 2003, I voted for the confirmation of the election of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson and for the blessing of committed same-sex relationships. I have worked since 1982 towards equality in the church for gay and lesbian Episcopalians based on four things.
1) The Bible does not speak in any place at all of loving committed same-sex relationships.
2) The church has made rules about homosexuality in the same way it did when it refused to believe that gentiles could be Christians without first being circumcised, when it said slavery was approved of by the Bible, and when Galileo was persecuted for saying the earth circled the sun. Our negative ideas of homosexuality were just that - our ideas and not those of God.
3) Jesus was a person of inclusion - reaching out to those who were shunned by the religious leaders of the day, and he commands us to continue his work of Love.
4) My experience of presiding at the blessing of same-sex union and seeing the love and commitment of these partners to God and to each other in the face of prejudice and rejection.
When I returned from Minneapolis, I went back to my work as the priest at the Chapel of the Transfiguration in Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole. This attendance at the chapel is partly local Jackson residents and many tourists. Often more than 150 people from all over the world and from all sorts of denominations worship together in this small chapel each week. Frequently, worshippers have to sit on outdoor benches because the church is full. The majestic Tetons fill the horizon as we share the bread of Christ’s presence and wine of the Spirit.
As the news of the Episcopal Church flashed on every TV set and our work was discussed endlessly, people came to the chapel. A young couple from Italy said to me, "We can’t wait until the Catholic Church does what you have done." Various members of other denominations said, "You Episcopalians always lead the way, thank you, thank you." I was amazed by the outpouring of love and support for our church and our actions.
I believe we did the right thing in Minneapolis, prayerfully and responding to Jesus’ call to Love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
I asked Wyoming gays and lesbians how life in the church is for them now.
A gay man responds:
"This has been a time of strange feelings for me since General Convention.  I have felt both excited and anxious over the past few weeks. Excited in that at last we are being recognized in some way as full partners in the church. The old was a feeling of being tolerated, but now it feels like the church has fully recognized gay folks as real people,  with something to offer. On the other hand I feel anxious because I don’t think there have been any real winners in this whole thing, but a lot of hurting people on all sides still struggling with the issue of homosexuality (or more real, the question of sexuality in general) but in way that makes us deal with our feelings and not just the intellectual question.
In [various] Wyoming congregations since GC, I have found that people want to deal with the feelings but are not being led or encouraged in a healthy way to do so. [Where there have been discussions] we have ended up at the point of knowing it is OK to disagree, and we can remain friends and "family."
I applaud our Bishop for his courage in going out to meet with people and taking the abuse he has since the GC. Bruce and our delegates stood for something important, and I know struggled with the way to vote, even those who may not have agreed with either issue. It has affirmed my belief that the people of Wyoming are more interested in individual rights than corporate correctness.
The Episcopal Church has led in many areas over the past years, like the ordination of women, and now gay inclusion. As a Methodist friend of mine said recently: "You have opened the door and now we will begin to step through it. I think this is how many of our church friends see things...even the RCs."

A lesbian woman responds:
"Much of what I feel now is what I felt after initially hearing the news: joy, the belief that I’m accepted and that I have a community who will stand up for me, and a sense of renewed commitment to my faith community. Previous to GC, I felt disenfranchised,  even though I was accepted in my local parish (more or less) and even in my local diocese. I felt it as a tentative acceptance, something that could be overturned at any moment by a preponderance of people against me. -- I felt like I could be shunned again at any moment.
Now, my church has put itself on the line for someone like me -- stood up to likely recriminations, loss of income and membership, judgment on the part of the rest of the Christian community. I feel like the blacks in Alabama must have felt during the violent turmoil of the civil rights movement days when white people joined them. The white people willingly submitted to the violence of the bigots. They didn’t have to, but their beliefs dictated that they stand with the blacks. They put their homes, incomes, even their lives on the line. I am deeply, deeply grateful. But more than that, something in me is healed.
I never realized before that the blacks who had white people standing on their lawns and singing, "We shall overcome" really needed those people, not just because the bigots weren’t as likely to hurt the whites, but because the whites were the representatives of belonging -- being an ok part of the culture -- measuring up. Something in my heart is able to relax because of the dear Episcopalians from all over the country who are symbolically standing on my lawn.
I also feel like I’m not as likely to be kicked out or shunned again. Now my church policy is no longer just a matter of personal feeling on the part of people whose lives I’ve touched, it’s a matter of precedent. It’s a matter of resolution. There are many churches throughout the country where I would not be accepted, but there are many more where I would. And not only that, each church has been forced to make a decision for itself on this issue -- or maybe I should say the very beginnings of a decision. But in any case, the issue is acknowledged. It’s not some deep, dark thing that will shock people by its very mention. If I go into any church and say to the priest or the senior warden, "I’m lesbian. Am I welcome here?" I am pretty sure of getting a simple yes or no answer. It used to be that what I could look forward to was shock, horror at the question, a hasty retreat into ambiguity, and the placing of distance. It takes incredible steel of the spine to keep asking the question in the face of such a response."
These are members of your churches. Everywhere they wait in hope that they are acceptable to you, as the hymn says "Just as I am." I did not include their names because it still not safe physically, economically and socially, for gays and lesbians in Wyoming to be "out." But our actions as a church have made one more safe space for our brothers and sisters.
Looking back I still remember the story of Bishop Ted Eastman as he made his decision to support the confirmation of the election of the first honest and openly gay bishop. The Presiding Bishop asked the bishops to make two lists - reasons for voting yes and reasons for voting no on the confirmation and then to pray over the lists. Bishop Eastman said as he prayed he noticed that his "no" list was quite long and his "yes" list was very short. He continued to pray and it came to him that the "no" list was about fear and the "yes" list was about hope. And that was the answer: If the church is not about hope what else can it be about?
In November, on the Feast of All Saints, I watched the consecration of Bp. Robinson and there I saw it: A church, a people of hope, of joy, of love. Consecration photos and video

Here is an interesting way to procrastinate.

What Famous Leader Are You?

This is the 8th anniversary of my ordination - I usually give out stars to each person I see on this day with a word for the year as presents - but since I am not seeing too many people today - I send three Epiphany gifts and one word "DANCE"

From Lane Denson - Out of Nowhere
William James said it. "Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
From the looks of all the gravitas in the church these days, we're running pretty short on both. There's precious little common sense and not all that much laughter, although there's more than enough of the ludicrous to go around. The only dancing I've seen is on needles and pinheads. We seem never to get over taking ourselves so much more seriously than our work.
I wonder if maybe the cure for this could be right under our noses. Might common prayer and a sense of humility be the same thing, moving at different speeds... a sense of humility, just common prayer, dancing?
Nothing so well defines us as the Book of Common Prayer. In the cycles and crises of life, it tells the world [and us] who we are and what we believe about God and ourselves and how we'd like to think we relate to one another. Maybe, if we listen up, it can also center us into enough humility to experience an incredible lightness of being, which strikes me as a pretty good way to talk about common prayer dancing.
Our prayer is common, not empirical, our worship collegial, not pontifical, our faith corporate, not manipulative. If we look at it like that, we just might discover after all that our vocation is to be Heaven's colonists seeking an indigenous ministry.
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Out of Nowhere is an occasional piece, intentionally daily, but not likely. If you know others who might want to receive it, please send me their addresses. If you're getting duplicates or if you want your address removed, please let me know. The OoN archive may now be found at www.covenant-journal.org. Copyright © 2003 Lane Denson III

From an old country western song:

Life is a dance
with steps we don't know
Join the dance
Learn as we go.

"The Work of Christmas." by The Rev.Dr. Howard Thurman - chaplain of Howard U, 1940s and '50s
Â?When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild nations,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart."

Prayers and blessings for the journey - keep following your star.