In the garden...

Supposing him to be the gardener...

Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb, deep in her grief and loss. The one who had freed her of her many demons, who had given her back her life, whom she had followed and supported - he is dead. All who have experienced death of those we love, of the passing away of beloved times, can relate to this depth of loss. The story of God in human life starts in a garden. In the beginning... God walked with Eve and Adam, talked with them, they felt at one with God. They turned away from God to pursue their own lives and desires - they broke faith with God. As God makes garments to protect them on their journey, perhaps God wept into the threads.

Now we come to another garden and we are weeping. We know the terrible loss that death brings. We ache to be whole. Mary Magdalene think Jesus is the gardener and in a way he is - a gardener of our being - tending us and caring for us and praying us into wholeness. Even on the cross he stretches his arms out to us saying "forgive" - offering the path back to union with God.

Perhaps you have been far away, wandering from the faith of your childhood, perhaps you never heard the story of God's love for you and today you came out of curiosity or because a friend said, "Come and see." Or maybe your parents or your children brought you. Hear the words of Peter in the story of the Acts of the Apostles: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." Jesus comes to free us from whatever keeps us from living and loving freely. The offering is before us calling to us - we don't earn it - it is grace abounding freely. Everyone, in every nation, in every state of life, everyone is offered the loving embrace of God. Our response is awe and wonder (as Acts calls it "fear") and the desire to walk in the path of Christ. But first comes the offer.

In the garden, Mary Magdalene, does not know who Jesus is until he calls her name. It is that naming that is symbolic of who we are - someone who fully knows us and fully loves us. That is the offer today and every day of the one who rose from the dead and shows us the path of life.

Readings are here.

I am with you to the end...

Cleveland sings for love

Easter

From the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Take me out to the ball game

Opening Day! Put me in coach:

Palm/Passion Sunday

Today we start with one kind of parade leading into another. From the joyous Hosannas to the silence of the tomb. At our 8 a.m. service I had everyone read the Jesus' parts. Usually the congregations gets the "Crucify him" parts so I thought it would be a change for them to look at from the point of view of Jesus. I preached briefly on noticing who ministered to Jesus along the way. Noted that it is often the unnamed and unknown: the woman who spent her year's wages to anoint Jesus, Simon the Cyrene - a stranger walking through town, Mary Magdalen, Mary, and the other women at the cross, the rich man who goes in fear and trembling to claim Jesus' body. The people who are expected to help: the government, the church, his closest disciples - all actively seek to take his life or turn their backs on him in the end.

Afterward one of the men said - wow - that happened to me - I had a wreck on Main Street last week - my friends drove on by -- strangers helped me -- I think I need to start acting when I see help is needed (I know that he already does this but I think it reinforced the gospel for him).

We have to get that service done in less than an hour or the next group gets antsy. We did it but with the long Gospel - we stripped out everything else except the Blessing of the Palms (I told them to hold up their hands to get the palms of their hands as well as their palm fronds), the Prayers and the Eucharist.

I think it was good and all are set to meditate on the events of Holy Week.

Painting by Danila Vassilieff.

Hate the sin?

Father Matthew takes on the saying "love the sinner, hate the sin" - why that does not work.



You can now purchase his series on the Sacraments as a DVD - great for Christian Education or inquirers' classes. Click here for more information.

Some silliness for today

h/t to Andrew Plus

A prayer for our library...

Here is the prayer I composed for the blessing of our local library. In 1909 the original Carnegie was built here in Lander - a big stone edifice like you see in many Western small towns. Today in 2009 we dedicated an addition and remodel of the old. Odd fact- the current mayor grew up in the house where the new addition now stands.

Prayer for the Fremont County Library in Lander

God of all creation, giver of knowledge, wisdom, and creativity, you spoke your Word and all things were brought into being. In the spirit of the creative power of words:

We offer prayers this day for our library:

For all who worked to bring it into being
For the support of the community of Lander, Fremont County and Wyoming
For the committed, ever welcoming and helpful librarians and staff
For all those who will use its resources

For children of all ages who find it a place to dream and wonder
For those who find it a place of refuge and support in their daily lives

For the connections it provides

between the history and cultures of the world
through books, magazines, and the Internet
in the sharing of our stories, the stories of our community and the stories of the world beyond our experience.
through performances and presentations of plays, films, music and art

May it be a place for the enlightenment of our minds and kindling of our imaginations.

May we receive the gift of intellectual courage to ask the tough questions, encounter the issues of our day, and to weigh critically all the answers suggested here.

May it be a safe place of gathering in the midst of our community

where all are welcome
where our diversity is honored
and respect is practiced.

May we become not only knowledgeable, but also wise.

We pray this day for hope, for understanding, for new vision, and for the courage to take risks for the sake of knowledge and for the wisdom to use these gifts in service of our community and the world. May those who come here encounter hope, grace, and love. May the Fremont County Library in Lander ever be a place of blessing in our community. Amen.

4 Lent

Readings are here.

This week's lessons seem to have a theme of being raised up for healing. In the wilderness Moses holds up the image of a snake to heal those who have been bitten by poisonous snakes. The letter to the Ephesians says:

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

And in the Gospel, Jesus says:

"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

All of these are not raised up for themselves but for the sake of others. The raising up somehow transforms what might be a terrible thing into a healing thing.

I think how those who have been through suffering and death are more able to walk through these times with others. Henry Nouwen calls them wounded healers. AA and other 12-step programs are example of people having found healing who are able to guide others through the healing process.

Although terrible things should not happen to any of us and we pray that they will not - the example of Christ is one of how suffering can be redemptive. Dorothee Sollee says that our pain can be like a kidney stone - serving no purpose other than hurting. Or it can be like childbirth- bring new life to another.

Some others thoughts on the Serpent on the Pole here and here. Both having to do with the healing and lifegiving power of looking directly at death.

And a poem:

Anaphora
by Nicholas Samaras

Let the path beat me down.
Let the weather and no covering beat me down.
Let the sun be my undoing.
Let Ksenofondos Monastery shrink behind me, until I lose all
bearing.
Let me lose the road to where I lose all hope.
Let this path diverge unto my ruin, and beat me down.
Let all the elements of the earth beat me down.
Let the manuscript of my sins beat me down.
Let God thunder and kingdom come to beat me down.
Let me uncover my shame and give over my life.
Let me repent until repentance breaks me.
Let this path beat me down.
Let me learn the word for water is the same as the word for
forgiveness.
Let the path beat me down, as I lie on its body and give up
everything.
Let me let go of the bag I own, the book, the pen, the dry bottle.
Let me own none of it.
Let me own nothing of myself.
Let the dust of my footsteps be tracked over by the wolves.
Let me die on these rocks, and my body be discovered in days.
Let my hands be found bloody with climbing the scree.
Let the oblique ascension of stars slant over my body.
Let the solemn silence of night be my liturgy.
Let God thunder and beat me down.
Where is the monastic, and where the scribe?
Where is the wise to beat me down?
Let the path beat me down.
Let the path lead me to my other self.
Let the smell of water waken what I walked for.
Let my face be transformed.
Let my face be transfigured from my life.
Let the world be beaten down as I wobble up again.
Let me go back to my family changed.
Let the path beat me down.
Let this path beat me down.
Let the path break me as I come,
to be this broken, this blessed.

For St. Patrick's Day





Thanks to Fran I Am.

Marching to Anaheim

3 Lent

Readings are here here.

This week we have the 10 commandments, Paul wondering about wisdom, and Jesus clearing out the temple courtyards. The collect prays "Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul." It seems that all our lessons point us towards one function of Lent - which is to examine our whole being so that we can make space in our lives for God to show forth through us.

The commandments can be seen as limiting us or freeing us. Often we think of any strictures in our lives as bad - in the west we sing "Give me land lots of land under starry skies above - don't fence me in." We exult in the freedom to go where we want when we want. But on the other hand there is the story of cattle who graze near a cliff - without a fence - they fall to their deaths. The psalmist calls the law - a lamp unto our feet - that is it is not THE path but the commandments help to make the path more clear.

In the cleansing of the Temple - those selling are not technically breaking the law. In fact, they are using the law which forbids images to justify their business. Images are forbidden by the first commandment. In order to bring one's gifts to the Temple - the money with the image of Caesar has to be exchanged for image-less money.

So it seems that the Law can be an instrument of helping us to find the way but it can also be used to do things that are not at all in the Spirit of the Law.

Maybe we all need Jesus to come into the temple that is our body, mind and spirit - to help us sort this out.