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CHRIST THE KING ANGLICAN CHURCH in the Cidade de Deus, is in one of the most impoverished and dangerous neighbourhoods in the world. The following is an English translation of what this church considers its mission to be in this challenging environment:

We intend to be a place where all are welcome to be free, especially in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) neighborhood, where poverty, violence and hunger are so well-known. And in order to live this Gospel of liberation and reconciliation of the entire world through Christ Jesus, we also seek to integrate the Church with society, through several social projects. Our mission is bold: to say that Christ is the King is to say that love has the last word in the midst of this world of calamities. However, we are sure that, with Him, we are victorious.

ADVENT I

ADVENT I
Readings HERE.

Went to church today with our grandson at his church. It is his birthday this week so he wanted to have his birthday blessing. He has most of the service memorized (at 9 years of age) - both the people parts and the priest parts. Grandma the priest is happy. His church is a close knit community that does lots of praying for one another over all sorts of life events.
Today's theme is be alert as we do not know when Jesus will return. From the Gospel,"Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Advent is a time of preparation for Jesus' birth at Christmas but also a preparation for his return as the Christ. My way of looking at this is not so much some end time scenario with Jesus returning in clouds of glory at the end of the world as we know it. I believe that from the moment of resurrection we have been living with his return - we just don't always see it.
Where have I seen God breaking into my life in both small and grand ways? Advent is a time for me to reflect and watch. Reflect on the "closest moments to Christ" in my daily life (as the question in the Cursillo 4th day materials asks) and watch for moments this day and as the days proceed. It is happening all the time - if we are alert.
Waking and dreaming I wait and watch for the Christ filled moments as the days become shorter and the nights lengthen. There is something about the dark that can make room for entering both our hopes and fears, holding them close in the night time of our days.

A poem I wrote for for this week:


Wrapping myself in darkness
Under a quilt of stars
I retreat into the dreams
of the waiting child

World AIDS Day

A message from the Archbishop of Canterbury for World AIDS Day.

Friday Five

Every week revgalblogpals blog carries Friday Five - 5 questions to answer on your blog and link back to them. This week intrigued me enough to answer.
Post Thanksgiving Day Friday Five asks:

1. Did you go elsewhere for the day, or did you have visitors at your place instead? How was it?

2. Main course: If it was the turkey, the whole turkey, and nothing but the turkey, was it prepared in an unusual way? Or did you throw tradition to the winds and do something different?

3. Other than the meal, do you have any Thanksgiving customs that you observe every year?

4. The day after Thanksgiving is considered a major Christmas shopping day by most US retailers. Do you go out bargain hunting and shop ‘till you drop, or do you stay indoors with the blinds closed? Or something in between?

5. Let the HOLIDAY SEASON commence! When will your Christmas decorations go up?

I answer:
1. We were on the road all day traveling from Wyoming to the Oregon Coast.

2. I had a T-day dinner of a bowl of Wheaties. Good part - no post stuffing hangover. I would not have cooked in any case as it was my birthday and I never cook when my birthday falls on T-day. When I do cook Thanksgiving dinner - I do the turkey and the gravy and have everyone else bring something. I like yams (not too much with marshmallows though) and mashed potatoes and jellied cranberry sauce with my dinner - whatever else shows up is super.

3. Napping in a tryptophan and carbo haze.

4. Might go out to enjoy the crowds - probably won't indulge in any fights with other shoppers over items.

5. Holiday Season --- arrgghhh!!! Now is the time for going inward into my own private dark time (in a good way) of Advent. We cut our tree the weekend before Christmas and it stays up to January 6. I like to read Jan Richardson's Night Visions: searching the shadows of advent and christmas each day to keep me centered.

Workout Personality

Prevention Magazine quiz to determine what exercise program will work for your personality.

Here's mine:

Your Personality Type: SPONTANEOUS
Life is a game, and your strategy is always changing. While you aren't much for rules, you'll follow them if they're simple and help you have fun.

Your Exercise Rx:
Short but sweet activities that allow you to accumulate exercise time throughout the day may be a good choice, says Ross Andersen, PhD, director of exercise science at Johns Hopkins' weight management center. Spontaneous types also tend to do well with games.

Best Choices

Short walks throughout the day
Taking the stairs
Bike rides
Hiking
Tennis
Racquetball
Squash
Basketball
Frisbee


Leisure Activities
Your first priority is to work regular exercise into your week. But also think about using your leisure time to burn off a few extra calories. Here are some extracurricular activities for your personality type:

skiing

playing in a softball or volleyball league


Obstacles
Different personalities don't just take to different activities; they have to contend with different obstacles too. Here's what you might find in your path, as well as ways to get around it:

Your biggest enemy is an idle mind. Even short workouts can turn torturous if there's nothing to occupy your brain.

Solution: Watch TV or listen to music while exercising, or grab a workout partner to talk with.

All Saints and All Souls

I am not preaching this week, not on the road either. Nice to contemplate home without travel. It feels like I have been traveling non-stop. And "miles to go" again starting next Thursday. Since this is the week of celebration of All Saints and All Souls I have been thinking about those in my life who have been saints to me. I could never quite separate those who belong to one day or the other. Some believe that only capital "S" saints belong on the first day while other "known only to me alone" people belong on the second day. Who are your saints? The people who have made it possible for you to live and thrive? Who has shown you the ways of life? Here are the words to a chant often used on All Saints Day. It is found at the Mission St. Clare Daily Office site.

Add your own saints and Saints.

Feast of All Saints 1 November

The litany of saints that follows is chanted annually at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D.C., at the principal eucharist celebrating All Saints' Day. It was composed around 1979, largely by William MacKaye, former religion editor of the Washington Post, though some of the images were taken from A Liberation Prayer Book of the Free Church in Berkeley, California, and has been adapted here and there in the subsequent years.

A Litany of All the Saints

* For all the saints, who from their labor rest,
* Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
* Thy Name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones present at our beginnings:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebecca,
Jacob and Rachel and Leah,
makers of the covenant, forebears of our race:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Elizabeth and Simeon,
Joseph, Monica and Helen,
exemplars in the love and care of children:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John the baptizer, map-maker of the Lord's coming:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:
* Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
* Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who showed the good news to be the way of life:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas the doubter;
Augustine of Canterbury;
Francis Xavier;
Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky;
all travelers who carried the Gospel to distant places:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Bernard and Dominic;
Catherine of Siena, the scourge of popes;
John and Charles Wesley, preachers in the streets;
all whose power of speaking gave life to the written word:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Benedict of Nursia,
Teresa of Avila;
Nicholas Ferrar;
Elizabeth Ann Seton;
Richard Meux Benson;
Charles de Foucauld;
all founders of communities:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
* Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
* And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who gave their lives to the care of others:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Louis, king of France;
Margaret, queen of Scotland;
Gandhi the mahatma, reproach to the churches;
Dag Hammarskjold the bureaucrat;
all who made governance an act of faith:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Peter of the keys, denier of the Lord;
Ambrose of Milan, who answered the Church's summons;
Hilda, abbess at Whitby;
Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, protector of the Jews;
Jean-Baptiste Vianney, cure d' Ars,

Patient hearer of catalogues of sins;
All faithful shepherds of the Master's flock:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary Magdalen, anointer of the Lord's feet;
Luke the physician;
Francis who kissed the leper;
Florence Nightingale;
Albert Schweitzer;
all who brought to the sick and suffering the hands of healing:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O blest communion, fellowship divine!
* We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
* Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Pierluigi da Palestrina;
John Merbecke;
Johann Sebastian Bach;
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
Benjamin Britten;
Duke Ellington;
all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul:

Stand Here Beside Us!
David and the Psalmists;
Caedmon;
John Milton, sketcher of Paradise;
William Blake, builder of Jerusalem;
John Mason Neale, preserver of the past;
all poets of the celestial vision:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Zaccheus the tree-climber;
Brother Lawrence;
Therese of Lisieux, the little flower;
Andrew of Glasshampton;
all cultivators of holy simplicity:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
* Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
* And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones haunted by the justice and mercy of God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Amos of Tekoa, who held up the plumbline;
John Wycliffe, who brought the Scripture to the common folk;
John Hus and Menno Simons, generals in the Lamb's war;
Martin Luther, who could do no other;
George Fox, foe of steeple-houses;
all who kept the Church ever-reforming:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Paul the apostle, transfixed by noonday light;
Augustine of Hippo, God's city planner;
Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, architects of the divine;
Charles Williams, teacher of coinherence;
Karl Barth, knower of the unknowable;
all who saw God at work and wrote down what they saw:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John, the seer of Patmos;
Anthony of the desert;
Julian, the anchoress of Norwich;
Hildegarde, the sybil of the Rhine;
Meister Eckardt;
Bernadette of Lourdes;
all who were called to see the Master's face:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Joachim of Fiora, prophet of the new age;
Johnny Appleseed, mad planter of Eden;
Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice;
Benedict Joseph Labre, priest and panhandler;
all whose love for God was beyond containment:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* The golden evening brightens in the west;
* Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
* Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who died in witness to the Christ:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Stephen the deacon, the first martyr, stoned in Jerusalem:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Justin, Ignatius and Polycarp, who refused the incense to Caesar:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Perpetua and Felicity, torn by beasts in the arena at Carthage:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley,

Burned in Oxford:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein, put to death at Auschwitz:

Stand Here Beside Us!
James Reeb, Jonathan Daniels, Michael Schwerner,
Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, shot in the South:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martin Luther King, shot in Memphis:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Janani Luwum, shot in Kampala:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Oscar Romero, shot in San Salvador:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martyrs of Rome, of Lyons, of Japan, of Eastern Equatorial
Africa, of Uganda, of Melanesia,
martyrs of everywhere:

STAND HERE BESIDE US!
* But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
* The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
* The King of Glory passes on his way.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones of every time and place:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Glorious company of heaven:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All climbers of the ladder of Paradise:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All runners of the celestial race:

Stand Here Beside Us!

[The people may call out saints' names]

Great cloud of witnesses:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Mary most holy, chief of the saints:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, yes-sayer to God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, unmarried mother:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, gate of heaven and ark of the covenant:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
* Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
* Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus our liberator, creator of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, redeemer of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, sanctifier of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and
the end:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Widow and Judge

Readings for Sunday are here.

"In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming."

I am bothered when I hear interpretations of this passage that see God as comparable to the unjust judge. In most of the Hebrew Scriptures, God identifies with the widow. It is the widow in this parable who is the persistent one calling for justice. When I read this poem by John Shea in Stories of Faith, "Storyteller of God," I found the answer to my questions:

Or suddenly
you are gowned in power,
a judge whose verdicts are
as slick as well worn coins.
All salute you in the marketplace
and from their sleeves
pull presents to please you.
Except a certain widow with a certain case
who in the morning waits before your door
and in the court nags
your heartless logic with her need
and at night weeps outside your garden.
One day,
wearied by her words,
you say,
"All right!"
You give justice to the widow
whose ceaseless tongue belongs to God.

Our call is to be persistent widows when we see abuse, to cry out in the marketplace, and in the courts. The Greek word that is translated "wear me out by continually coming" is a technical boxing term for giving someone a black eye. It is also used metaphorically for embarrassing one in public. So either the widow gave the judge a literal black eye or she finally shamed in into action.

Where in life am I like the Judge, where the Widow?

Photo from here.

The Nine

Readings for Sunday are here.

From my book, Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible:

Then Jesus asked, 'Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' Then he said to him, 'Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Luke 17:17-19

I would have thanked you but:

1. my dinner was burning
2. my kids were crying
3. my business needed me
4. I didn't have any note cards
5. I didn't want to embarrass you
6. I thought you knew
7. I was tired
8. I was so excited
9. I forgot

I wonder why the foreigner did return and the other did not. It occurred to me that when all were suffering from a common disease, they were bonded by their outcast status. When they were all healed, the nine returned to their life: their ethnic and religious life. The foreigner only had Jesus at that point - he could not merge so easily into his old life. And perhaps he had found his true home.



Ten Lepers Healed by Brian Kershisnik (1962- )

Potters, Philemon et al

Readings are here.

Jeremiah speaks of God as a potter in Sunday's reading from the Hebrew Scriptures. We have songs where we sing of "you are the potter, we are the clay." At one time I did pottery and the comparison of the songs with their gentle rhythm and sense of God shaping us has little to do with the actual process of making pots. First the clay is mixed with just the right amount of water then it has to be slammed and pounded to rid it of air bubbles. Too much water and it will just be mud -too little and it will crumble. It will explode in the firing if all air is not removed. Once those steps are complete it has to be centered on the wheel - pressed down and held tight so it will not fly off into pieces. Now the potter begins to shape and pull the clay into a pot. Often potters will stop and cut it in half to see if the sidewalls are even. Very few pots make it to the kiln -- where another transformation begins.

This metaphor of Jeremiah reflects closely Jesus words about being a disciple and following in his way - putting him first, picking up our cross, and giving up possessions.

Quite a contrast to Paul's smooth letter to Philemon. Paul encourages, exhorts and appeals to Philemon's better self in his letter to the slave owner. Paul seems to accept that slavery is a reality and that Philemon has the power of life and death over Onesimus. Jewish law opposes the keeping of Jewish slaves so there is some tradition for Paul to oppose slavery. The reality of his current culture - where slavery sometimes is better than some other states of life - makes Paul tread carefully with Philemon. This letter was used by the opponents and supporters of slavery during the Abolitionist times. An example of how the Bible can be used when one wants to support a certain belief system. Did Jesus oppose slavery? He is silent on this subject yet in our day we find it horrifying.

I find this letter raises more questions than it answers on the issues of being faithful in the midst of culture - being "in the world yet not of the world." It does teach me that sometimes cajoling and appealing to other's sense of fairness will get further than beating them over the head with my ideas of what is right and wrong.

Tree of Life

Readings are here

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

This is the Collect for Sunday. I was taken by the imagery of trees - grafting, increase, nourishment, fruit. It assumes that we are the tree. A tree used for grafting has a strong base and root stock but needs a graft to make good fruit. To become a tree of life we need good grounding, nourishment, and a way to use that which we take in for the feeding of the world.

Another thought comes from reading an essay in AARP magazine - about a man whose believes his soul was saved and life given back to him working at Starbucks. He has been a high flying ad exec - was downsized - had a consulting business - that was going nowhere. He was having coffee at Starbucks and the manager asked him if he wanted a job. At first kidding but then serious - he joined the "partners." Through his life on the job with people that would never have crossed his path, doing everything from cleaning toilets to running the cash register - he learned compassion and love for himself that he had never known. An unexpected reversal like Jesus gives in the gospel.

The other thought I have is about the value and valuing of work as Monday is Labor Day in the USA.

And from Streams of Mercy

Sharing a table at Starbucks
Strangers chatting
on our separate ways
Later the barista
sweeps up feathers along with
crumpled napkins.

Bent over woman

Sunday readings are here.

I am not preaching Sunday. Am flying to Phoenix to lead an EfM training, but I find this healing particularly poignant. A woman who is so bent down by her burdens - spiritual or physical or emotional - she cannot look up. She cannot look at the stars or the blue skies. She cannot connect with others by looking into their faces. She stares down like a wallflower at the dance. Jesus touches her and immediately she straightens up. He proclaims her a "daughter of Abraham" - includes her "in" when others want her left out. They worry that it was not done in the correct way - the rule about healing on the Sabbath is more important that this beloved daughter of God.
This is the way of Jesus - people are more important. God will not be contained by our rules.

more thoughts on Sunday

From Harry Potter – Introduction to Deathly Hallows

“Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent.

“In this divine glass they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.” (William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, 1702).

This seems to resonate with the readings from Hebrews about being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. The San Damiano Crucifix to me is a cross of the great cloud of witnesses.

I am also taken with Judi Boli's comments about fire in her sermon for today. One that some seeds can't grow without fire and the other about how firebreaks use fire to fight fire.

Will meditate on this and listen to NPR (always a good source for sermon material) on my 2 hour drive to Rock Springs this morning.