tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386979141466737062024-03-13T08:24:48.106-04:00Donald's MissivesDonald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-6968748497995747892012-06-06T09:40:00.000-04:002012-06-06T09:40:06.043-04:00The Trinity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">TRINITY SUNDAY 2012</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Very Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">June 3, 2012</span></div>
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Most Christians know instinctively
the importance of the Trinity in defining their faith as Christians, and they
are proud to bear its name. We proclaim the Trinity week after week in the
Nicene Creed, and often begin what we do liturgically in “the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were baptized in that Name. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Belief in the Trinity is the central
theological doctrine that sets Christians apart from other faith communities ––
such as our Jewish and Muslim friends and neighbors –– who also believe in the
same one God. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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But down through the ages, the
Trinity has often been the source of confusion and dissension. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might well ask: What is it about the
Trinity that puts it at the very center of our Christian faith but yet remains
so elusive to our everyday understanding? Does the Trinity have any spiritual
meaning for us today or is it simply some outdated theological/intellectual
argument that speaks to no one in the modern era?</div>
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We live in a
world in which many question the very existence of God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some see God only as a “delusion.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read of one doubter referring to the God of
the Bible as “a petty, unjust ... capricious bully” who should have no place in
the contemporary consciousness. Journalist Sam Harris, citing terrorist acts
committed in the name of God, argues that the time has come for “the end of
faith.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some may remember a few decades
ago when Time magazine created a sensation with its provocative cover asking,
“Is God dead?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- from the ideas
promulgated by the German philosopher, Nietzsche. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I loved the great t-shirt I saw a few years
later:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“God is Dead” ---Nietzsche;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nietzsche is Dead” ---God.)</div>
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What is a
believer to make of all of this? Is it finally time to write God’s obituary and
mourn his passing? Or are reports of God’s demise, like those of Mark Twain
over a century ago, “greatly exaggerated?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is too often blamed for what his followers
say about him and surely we can all hang our heads in shame over what has been
done and is being done in God’s name. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, what must die are the false notions
of who and what God is – a God, too often, made in our image. As Anglican bishop
and scholar J. B. Phillips wrote in 1952, “Your God Is Too Small!” Our notions
of God are always too small, but does that mean that God is dead? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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It is often said that preachers
should be very careful preaching on Trinity Sunday, because it is almost
impossible to do so without committing some kind of heresy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because we really cannot understand God, as hard as we try to explain God
(or the Trinity) to others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only God
really knows and understands God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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For me, Trinity Sunday is not the
celebration of a doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a
time when we should be so bold to think we can explain the mystery of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trinity Sunday is best kept simply as a joyful
celebration of our life with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
a time to recognize and give thanks for the relationship we have with God and
the relationships God has with us in many forms of expression and experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Trinity is an expression of community
itself—the dance of God with each of us and with the community of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This faith is grounded in our experience of
God in our daily lives, in our worship, in our prayer, in our attentiveness to
Holy Scripture, and in the apostolic fellowship of our life together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p> </o:p></div>
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[In a children’s homily I did a few
years ago, I used this analogy: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My wife
calls me Donald.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My daughters call me
Dad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My grandsons call me Papa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I three different people?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though I may have at least three
different names, no, I am the same person, simply three different
relationships. . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all about
relationships.</i>]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let’s look at our experience of God
as a church/congregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a people of
faith, this is a time to reaffirm our belief in God, to name our experience of
the Holy One in our lives and the life of the community, allowing God to shape
who we are as congregation and what we are to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only by having the courage to turn to God and
by laying claim to the faith we profess can we truly become who God would have
us be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are not being formed by our
prayer, our worship, and our faith then all that we do as a church will be
focused solely on the need to survive as some sort of benevolent social club in
competition with the secular organizations of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It has often been the tendency of
the church, and especially in these more recent times, to structure ourselves
on the model of the world around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
bishops and clergy become like C.E.O.s of a collection of institutions that we
are sometimes hard pressed to tell apart from every other institution around
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our people work hard to see that we
survive, and at times even thrive, in this secular world, bringing to our life
together their own experience of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But at the heart of our corporate life we must remember that we are the
people of God and this is God’s church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One of the great temptations in the life of institutional religion today
is to simply to buy into the corporate/business model of functioning in a
secular world, rather than seeking to be a genuine faith community set in the
midst of the secular world with a mission to sanctify the unholy and to
reconcile the alienated. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We are standing on holy ground</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are in a sacred place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
in the church that the sacred touches the secular, a worship setting where God is
made known to those of us in the world, and it is to this community we are
commissioned to bring others to an encounter with the Holy. This is a holy and
sacred place for each of us because here we have found God, we have been touched
by Christ, and our lives have been transformed<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We say we are a people who believe
that God is our Father who created us; that Christ is our brother who came to
be with us – Emmanuel, God with us; and that the Spirit of God continues to
nurture, feed, sustain, and love us every day of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have committed ourselves to live in this
apostolic community of teaching and fellowship, centering our common life
around the Holy Eucharist and our life of prayer; we acknowledge our failures
and we seek to return daily to God. Through our baptism into this family of
God, we say that we will proclaim the Gospel to everyone; that we will
recognize and serve Christ in others and love all of those around us; and we
will work for justice, peace, and the dignity and value of each
individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the foundation of
this family of God; that is the sum total of what we are all about. This is our
identity and the foundation of our relationship with God and with those around
us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The idea of the “Trinity” is not
trying to figure out who God is, but, rather, this is simply our feeble attempt
to speak something of our relationship with the Holy in our lives and in the
experience of those who have turned to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We cannot “define” who this God is – we can only proclaim that God is
Love, the Author of all creation and who created each of us; that God has sent
his beloved Son to show us that we are in a unique relationship of love with
God; and that God fills us with the Spirit to nurture that love in us, giving
us the breath of life to share that grace with one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not everything we can say about God,
but, perhaps, this is all that we really need to know about God<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-89316834738677367312012-05-09T08:48:00.003-04:002012-05-09T08:49:14.652-04:00See How These Christians Love One Another<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">THE FIFTH SUNDAY
OF EASTER</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">May 6, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">(Year B)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The Very
Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ACTS 8:26-40 — 1
JOHN 4:7-21 — JOHN 15:1-8</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is a well-known song which is
used often in the renewal circles of the church, which says, “They will know we
are Christians by our love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
such great truth to that simple song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is the essence of Christian life – it is the essence of all godly life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every major religion declares that love is
the foundation on which all people are called to build a life with God and with
each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, among the classic religions,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as well as, among numerous Native American
and other ethnic and cultural belief systems, all declare love to be at the
very nature of their faith – love of God, love of other people, love for the
creation and all creatures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
talking here of the universal, across the board, most basic drive and instinct
of human nature, however tainted and corrupted it may be by what we call
original sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love is the essence of
life and without it being clearly the priority of all living our existence will
be marred by war, greed, hatred, resentments, prejudices, anger, hurt and
unhappiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Christianity declares that love is
the basic Christian ethic by which all moral decision making should be made –
“what is the most loving thing to do in this situation . . .”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i>Shema</i> is the most essential
commandment of the Judeo-Christian community, “Hear, O Israel, you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you shall love your
neighbor as yourself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Second
Reading today from 1 John is the classic essay on “love” in the New Testament (This
is a passage which we should read at least once a week, along with 1
Corinthians 13). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we were able to
live out that command to love one another, because love is from God,” we would
be well on our way to respond God’s greatest desire for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is this the foundation on which we
build our individual lives, we are also building a community – the community of
the church – whose corner stone is that “God so loved the world that he sent
his only Son. . .”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make it even more
urgent and relevant – this is the purpose and meaning of the life and work of
the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is really that simple –
as I have probably said too often – it is very simple, not always very easy,
but very simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To this end, as far as
I am concerned, the building of a community of love is the mission of this
congregation and the entire church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
proclaim the good news of God in Christ, to live in fellowship with one
another, praying together, discovering Christ in the breaking of the bread,
serving Christ in all persons, loving God and your neighbor as yourself, and
respecting the dignity of all persons is the purpose of our existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything, anything at all, that distracts us
or deflects this intent is a deterrent to the mission of this community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But, oh my, how the world and our
society misuse and corrupt the use of the word “love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is extremely frustrating to live in a
culture in which words that possess such deep and essential qualities for our
life when used rightly are being bandied about daily on the lowest possible
level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you as appalled as I with
this latest genre of TV “reality” shows?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are those geared to see how completely they can gross you out and
show you how can you humiliate your neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There were those shows in which the bachelor was trying to determine
which girl is the “hottest” prospect for a relationship or the girls who were
vying for the presumed wealth of some hunk who in reality doesn’t have money,
brains, or much of anything else to offer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, there are ongoing daily fare of “soaps” with their sordid affairs
and vindictive actions designed to really destroy their supposed enemies and
cheapen any and all personal relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fairy tale weddings, romantic novels, and a long history of escapist
fantasies bombard us regularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
those classic children’s stories like the <i>Mother Goose Tales</i> feature
fluffy love along with cruelty, deceit, greed, murder and evil step-mothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of which make for spicy drama, but what
of love?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We then arrive in church on a Sunday
morning to hear a preacher talk about “love” and our minds zoom off to the
fantasy land of pop culture or we just “zone out” and “glaze over” as the
sermon goes on with the expected and predictable pleas for a better
understanding of this most basic of all divine directives, “Beloved, let us
love one another. . . .”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While this is the basic building
block of our relationship with God and one another and lies at the heart of the
human community, it is really not all that easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, this business of love is quite
confusing and difficult for us to even begin getting it right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Greek philosophers even had different
words for different aspects of love: for friendship, for affection like that of
a parent for a child, for erotic or sexual love which is a basic and vital part
of human nature, and, of course, divine love – <i>agape</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I am reluctant, even if I could, to try
to draw a line between where one ends and the other begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it is God’s love which is the common
thread which runs through the entire tapestry of life and which holds it all
together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“In
every moment of genuine love, we are dwelling in God and God in us.”
(Tillich)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the point which I
believe God wants us to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the point I want to make and I think this is the point God would have us hear
this morning – <i>“In every moment of genuine love, we are acknowledging that
we are dwelling in God and God in us.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In every moment of genuine love, we
are living in God and God in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stop
for a moment, pause, and ask, “Have I never felt the strength of God welling up
in me, giving me a new insight, a surge of energy, or a flash grace for the
moment at hand, grace that can only come from a power beyond my mortal wisdom or
ability?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of those times in your
life as you turned inward and you know that you have found deep within your
soul that gift of God – undeserved and unearned, more than likely, but there it
is – the presence of the Holy Spirit, the power of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the gift of love God shares in each
of us. That is true prayer – a profound communication – a deep connection with
the Holy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now, what does this imply for us as
we go about living today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From that holy
power comes the force in our lives that enables and ignites real <i>friendship</i>
for another and the willingness to accept friendship offered to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the care for the well-being of others,
unqualified respect for the people around us, the ability to give to those in
need, a readiness to accept the care and concern of others, and the desire to
live in a community of faith and mutual fellowship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The love of God, in which we live,
is, also, the source of the <i>affection</i> that we have for our families, our
parents, and our children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
gentle love and warmth that St. Paul said was patient and kind, not envious or
arrogant or rude and a love which bears all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is that love the parent
has for his/her child that remains no matter what they may do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(This may be the closest approximation we
make to God’s love for us.).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is physical love, the driving
force of our own <i>sexuality</i> and, with it, the respect and care of that
force in the lives of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love
is the one that can most easily be cheapened and most often abused, but it
cannot and dare not be denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a
love which is very sacramental as we commonly define sacrament – that outward
and visible sign (physical) of an inward and spiritual grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Physical love is a grace that expresses
itself in a deep and faithful relationship with another which is intensely
personal, precious, and reflective of a love which would not be fully expressed
without it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lastly, but most importantly,
soaring far above all forms of human love, there is <i>God’s love</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– the unmerited, unlimited, unqualified love
God has for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All love has its origins
in God and we do not live outside of his love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As John said, “God first loves us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As promised, you have heard nothing
new here this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the old,
old story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the energy and power
of God’s absolute and perfect love for us that we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is why we gather here this morning
and every time we gather as a worshiping community – to sing God’s praises, to
be filled by his Holy Spirit, and to joyfully celebrate with one another that
we are living in God and God in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are celebrating all about who God is – LOVE -- and who we are – LOVE.</span><o:p></o:p></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-21709107582931539562012-04-07T09:01:00.000-04:002012-04-07T09:01:38.930-04:00EASTER JOY<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">EASTER SUNDAY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">April 8, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Year B)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Very Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ACTS 10:34-43 —
PSALM 118:14-29 — COLOSSIANS 3:1-4 — MARK 16:1-8<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">“Do not
be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has been raised; he is not here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look, there is the place where they laid
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But go, tell his disciples and
Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as
he told you.” [Mark 16:6-7]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mark’s original version of the Easter story is very short
and ends abruptly with the women who went to the tomb being told that the Risen
Lord had gone to Galilee and would meet them there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark kept it very simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Galilee” was back out into the world, into
Jesus’ own territory, where he lives with everyone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is where we, too, find Jesus and that is
where he meets us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the place of
the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a place of
commemoration of a dead Jesus, not even simply a place to adore a Messiah that
we are taught was raised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, the
church is the threshold into Galilee, a window into the world where the risen
Christ goes ahead of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
meeting point of heaven and earth, where the sacred and the secular meet in the
presence of the living Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We
are fed and nurtured, we are assured of the most basic and essential belief of
Christendom that our God lives in the person of Christ, not confined to a box
on the altar nor the boundaries of these walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christ lives in the world where you and I live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have come here to discover him for
ourselves in order to recognize him in our world, where we can point to him and
say, “There he is, my Lord and my God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Easter is the very essence of life, not simply a recurring feast day in
the Christian Calendar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
shattering of what we think we know in order to make way for the real truth –
that God is alive in our world and in the life of each and everyone of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is a challenge
to all of us, as our Presiding Bishop once said, “The reality that Easter
proclaims is that everything that restricts, diminishes, imprisons and limits
life as God intends it . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is trampled
down by the risen Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christ’s
victory is therefore a challenge to everything within us and within the church
and our world that resists Christ’s all-embracing freedom.” Presiding Bishop
Katherine said, “In this Easter season I would encourage you to look at where
you are finding new life and resurrection, where life abundant and love
incarnate are springing up in your lives and the lives of your communities.
There is indeed greenness, whatever the season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Give thanks for Easter. Give thanks for resurrection. Give thanks for
the presence of God incarnate in our midst.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unhampered, for the most part, with confusion with secular
celebrations, like Christmas, Easter is the ultimate celebration of the
Christian experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is on this day
that we hear once again the story of our faith: the experience of the women who
went to the tomb; the vision of the Apostles to whom he later appeared; the
proclamation of the church through the ages that the tomb was empty and that
Jesus has risen from the dead; and that we have been liberated and given new
life and hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ironically, this is the most difficult day of the year for
the preacher to preach, because one cannot really embellish on the story or say
more than our worship says for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Easter, actually all of Holy Week, also, is the church at its best,
doing what it is intended to do, being what we are called to be—a community of
faith which gathers to share our faith and celebrate the love of God for us and
one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our <i>experience</i>
of God within our life in the church and with one another that defines who we
are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not here to explain or
justify what we believe, but simply to celebrate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are here to have a wonderful day of
praise, worship, and sharing fellowship with one another, and, together, coming
to the altar of our God to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our life as Christians does not begin with
understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot and dare not
attempt to approach Easter with the idea to de-mystify it, rationalize it, or
explain it in anyway that “makes sense.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Dean
Alan Jones wrote, “The Resurrection is not about a dead carpenter being
resuscitated and making it onto the six o'clock news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the explosion of the radically <i>New</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Good News is about the New breaking in on
our tired, frustrated, and divided world and filling us with awe, wonder, and
longing. . It is an invitation to live and to live <i>now</i>. (Alan Jones, <i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Passion for Pilgrimage</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The “New” of this Resurrection faith is the experience of
the physical, material reality of the people of God who discover that we are
living now in the reality of the Presence of the Holy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our faith may be <i>informed</i> by the
experience of others, but our faith is <i>formed</i> by our encounter with the
risen Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now, look and see for yourself where Christ is in your
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our acceptance of his presence
changes our lives—how we see life, how we live life, how we relate to each
other, how we set our priorities, how we go about the business of daily living,
and ultimately, how we define ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such an experience is what transforms and enlivens us within this
community of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is almost more
than we can bear because it is so wonderful, so powerful, so real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God lives!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are stretched to the breaking point in these turbulent times and in
our own turbulent existence and, yet, we are brought face to face with the immeasurable
riches of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-15658796070466885902012-03-16T07:37:00.000-04:002012-03-16T07:38:04.184-04:00The Church is Not God<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">March 11, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">(Year B)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Exodus 20:1-7 – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 –
John 2:13-22<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Today’s Gospel is so familiar to us and we, more often than not, take
it with a smile or a smirk, thinking, “That’s right, Jesus, you show
them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus driving the money changers
out of the Temple seemed good and right, but to the first Century Jew
(especially the Scribes and Pharisees) this was the height of blasphemy and an
attack on the very life of the Temple and its sacrificial system, not to
mention a key component to the support system of the Temple and it
priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To put this in a framework we
can identify with, suppose some righteous soul, taking the Gospel at its word,
came through the Farmers Market turning over the tables of the sellers or driving
away the crowd with a whip as they sat down for a great meal at the Annual
Auction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmm. That would not go over
very well, methinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would call the
police and have them arrested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But, as the Gospel says, will zeal for God’s house consume us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What might be going on in the mind of God,
presuming that God is sitting in on a Vestry meeting as we discuss the budget
for the next year, or if Christ was eavesdropping on a Diocesan Council meeting
as it was planning for the expenditures of the Diocese for the new year?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, don’t get me wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a
parish priest for forty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
the challenges of maintaining the structure and operating realistically in
today’s world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know the struggle of
keeping your head above water and not being overwhelmed by the cost of keeping
the ship afloat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my entire ministry,
I never had a parish that there was not a huge task to meet budgets, pay decent
salaries, pay the light bill and all of the other “household” expenses of the
church. We had to hold all sorts of fund raising projects, hopefully keeping in
focus what this is all about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nevertheless, I know all too well how easily we become so distracted by
the struggle that we can, and often do, lose sight of what is our primary
vocation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have said to every
congregation I have ever served that I thought that I had heard Jesus
muttering, as he looked at the contemporary church, “No, no, that is not what I
meant!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On the other hand, I am convinced that there is truth in the fact that
this is not first century Palestine, but 21<sup>st</sup> Century America with a
totally different set of needs and issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The community of faith, that we call the church, is going to look
differently today than two thousand years ago, one thousand years ago, one
hundred years ago, and, maybe, even what that community looked like when I was
ordained over forty-eight years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But,
have we worked ourselves into some sort of trap whereby we have to struggle to
preserve what was, in our imagination, the “good old days” that may not have
been all that good; or have the “shakers and movers” of the church and society
really found anything that is that much better; or have we simply gone
off-course and lost sight of the priorities that God has set before us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The bottom line question for me this morning is: “Does this Gospel have
any significance or relevance to us and to the church of the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe it has a profound
lesson for us and a highly significant and relevant point to be made to our
church and all Christian churches today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By taking the point of the lesson to heart, we are being asked to raise
the question, “Who are we as a church, as a people of faith living in community
with one another; who and what is our mission?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus tells us, when he speaks of the “Temple” being his body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church has always said, even if it did
not understand, that the church is the Body of Christ. The presence of Christ
in the world is made known, seen, and heard through the community of faith,
this company of believers who re-present Christ to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, the revolutionary, the compassionate
zealot, who created the disturbance in the Temple precincts that day, is the
incarnation of the mercy and the holiness of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If then, we are the Body of Christ in the
world today, then the mercy and holiness of God lives in the hearts of all
those who are of the household of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God dwells in us – you and me – and God desires for us to live fully in
the compassion and grace of Christ and be an invitation to all others to come
and be an integral part of the Body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
to enter into the Holy of Holies at the center of our life together we must
always seek to remove the obstacles that obscure our vision and block our
access to God, just as Jesus drove out the sacrificial animals and the money
changers from the Temple that week of Passover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What we, the institutional church, has done is rather than allowing
Christ at the heart of the church, we have allowed the church, its survival,
and its comfortable place in our society of today to replace the heart of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have often reminded my congregations that
the church is not God – please do not confuse the two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church of our creation has too often
become our own secret society or club which often bears little resemblance to
the heart Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With every good
intention and every desire for the good, we may have lost the vision of Christ
and replaced that vision with our own methods of survival in a secular world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is the church, for us, the body that points us to God or has it become
an end in itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is the church a place
where the faithful gather to celebrate our life together in God or has it
become a place of distraction and self-absorption – is it about God or is it
about me?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The call is clearly to remove the obstacles that stand between us and
God – to seek to discover God at the center of our life together, just as God
is at the center of the Incarnate Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are called primarily to be a community of prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than simply coming together to say our
prayers, we are a community of prayer which means we live in an awareness of
the presence of God in our lives, in the lives of everyone we meet, and at the
center of the life of all creation, and we celebrate that life of union with
the Holy One.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Then, celebrating God at our center, we begin to ignite our desire to
be like Christ, whose Body we claim to be, and live our life together with new
and vigorous zeal of commitment to the mission of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">prophetic</i> community of faith, daring to be an invitation to others
to be a part of this family of God and to share in the mission of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may well mean that we must take risks,
to make what amounts to a counter-cultural commitment to the mission of Christ
to reach out to everyone: to care for the sick, the poor, the outcasts, the
lonely, the elderly, the young, the fearful, the confused and the distracted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to be Jesus’ voice in this
world which is running amuck – just look at our present political rhetoric, the
rampant anger and hostility between people in the nation, in the world, and
even in the church – a world that is starving for the sound of reason, decency,
and mutual respect. If we are truly the church God wants us to be, we will be a
reconciling, loving, inclusive, and renewed community of forgiven, thankful,
grateful – eucharistic – people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
are genuinely placing God at the center of our awareness as a community of the
faithful, we will begin to discover the reality of the presence of the Holy One
in everyone we meet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As the Body of Christ, we are called to live this life together with
others, supporting and serving one another, offering our praise and worship, welcoming
everyone into this fellowship of hope and love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The more we seek to know God, the more we want to take up the cross and
follow Christ, the more we work to serve each other, the more we will truly be
the Church. It is here, in this sacred Body, that we promised in our baptism to
serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace among all people,
and to respect the dignity of every human being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In order to follow him, we need to remove the barriers and
distractions, the self-importance and the greed, outgrowing the survival
mentality that condemns the church to mediocrity and eventual death, and boldly
and with courage transform our life together so that we may, indeed, become who
God would have us be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-60433036997029530342012-03-01T11:00:00.001-05:002012-03-01T11:00:30.173-05:00The Cost of Discipleship<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">MARCH 4, 2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Year B)</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 – Romans 413-23 –
Mark 8:31-38<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Being a disciple of Jesus was not for sissies, Peter found out in the
Gospel account today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was telling
him that he (Jesus) must greatly suffer, be rejected by all of the officials
and important people of their society, and that he would be killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While he said he would rise again after three
days, what Peter mainly heard was the suffering and death of this man whom he
loved and for whom he had given up everything to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Peter’s usual blustery way, he declared
that he would never let that happen and he rebuked Jesus for even thinking it,
much less saying it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Then Jesus said a remarkable thing to Peter, “Get behind me,
Satan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For you are setting your mind not
on divine things, but on human things.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then Jesus said to everyone a remarkable and scary thing, “If any want
to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, the those who
lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whoa!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is not what most had
bargained for and, I suspect, a number who were following Jesus left about that
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed there would be a high
price, a great cost, to being a disciple of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a feature of being a Christian that
today we pretty much ignore and try to look the other way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are sure that being a Christian is about
being good, moral, kindly to others, patient, generous, and showing up at
church every Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are most
certainly good things and important to our lives as Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus would not disparage such behavior, but
Jesus is calling for something more, something more weighty and challenging,
and, often, far more difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can
even be a very nice and caring person without believing in Jesus or even God,
but we really cannot faithfully be a follower of Christ without being a person
of conversion: your heart must be where God’s heart is, as well as your hands
and your feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This takes great
courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is far easier said than
done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have not gotten it right, yet,
but we begin with our desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our desire
to follow Christ, to take up the cross lies at the heart of discipleship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do it it right, to take seriously the
words of Jesus in the Gospel today, there is a price to pay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the martyred German theologian and pastor, who was
executed by the Nazis in 1945, wrote in his great book,</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i>The
Cost of Discipleship</i>, about the contrast between “cheap grace” and “costly
grace:”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Cheap grace is the deadly enemy
of our Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are fighting today for
costly grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cheap grace means a grace as a
doctrine, a principle, a system . . . Cheap grace is the preaching of
forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without Church discipline,
Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cheap grace is grace without discipleship,
grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Costly grace is the gospel which
must be sought again and again . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace
because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is costly because it costs us our life, and it is grace because it
gives us the only true life . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Grace
is costly because it compels us to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him;
it is grace because Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I have a confession to
make:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not sure that I believed
that Jesus’ yoke was easy or his burden light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did not understand that assurance from Jesus until one memorable day
many years ago in Costa Rica.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was
first ordained I went to Costa Rica as a missionary and I was there for six
wonderful years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was at one of our
missions for a couple of days and was staying in a small little room at the
back of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One morning, I
opened the shutter to see a teenage boy across the way hitching up a team of
oxen to pull some huge mahogany logs from out of the edge of the jungle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He placed a large heavy yoke across their
necks and tied it to the oxen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then
connected a large chain from the yoke to the logs and started beating on the
oxen to pull the heavy load.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The oxen
strained and pulled against each other and made all sorts of unhappy noises as
the boy continued beating on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About
the time, the boy’s father came running out of their small house and he pushed
the boy aside and he tied the heavy yoke to the oxen by lashing it to them so
tightly that I thought he would pop their horns off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then an amazing thing happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The oxen settled right down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a very light tap on their rumps the oxen
pulled the huge log out of the field towards the lumber mill like it was a
match stick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Watching this scenario, it all
dawned on me about what Jesus meant when he said, “My yoke is easy.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By attaching the yoke so tightly, instead of
it being a burden it became a source of strength and power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is what Jesus meant when he said, “Take
up my cross.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we attach ourselves
so closely and tightly to the cross of Christ, then in place of it being a
fearful burden, the cross becomes a source of great strength and power.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is the great invitation to
follow Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To so bind ourselves to him
then, even in our own weakness and flawed humanity, we are infused with the
power and grace of Christ and we make our journey towards God, serving God and
God’s people and creation with Jesus’ obedience and courage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Being a Christian means that our
desire is to be like Christ (even though we are far from fulfilling that
desire) and to seek to live a life with new and , at times, countercultural
commitment to his mission to bring others into this family of God: to care for
the sick, the outcasts, the poor, the elderly, the lonely, and the fearful in
such a way that they know the grace and love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be a lonely and confusing task, but
being a follower of Jesus means that we embrace this loneliness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As God came to be fully human in Jesus, so we
too, understand what is means to be fully human through Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where we find glimpses of grace.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How do we even begin such a
journey?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We begin with a life of prayer
– not just the saying of our prayers, even though that is how we start – but
living in an awareness of the presence of God in our lives and in the lives of
every person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We seek to see and know
the power of God in all places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We live
this life together with others of faith as we support one another, together we
offer worship and praise to God, and we live as grateful, thankful, eucharistic
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that foundation, we reach
out to everyone in the world around us, caring for and loving one another,
seeking peace, working for justice and the well-being of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We began Lent with a reminder
that we are but dust and to dust we shall return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even in the reality of our limitations
and our mortality, we have been empowered by the cross of Christ to be like
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, to be like him!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave behind our fears and our notions of inadequacy
and take up the cross and follow him in order to become who God would have us
be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more we know God, the closer we
come to Christ, the more we become ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is true freedom in what Jesus asks of us – the freedom to draw
near to God, to love and accept one another and ourselves, as well, without
constraint.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let us always ask, and listen,
“where is Jesus asking me to follow him in my life today?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is time to take that step of
faithfulness, of vulnerability, of be being loved by God, of living and sharing
the Good News, to reach out in love and compassion to everyone, and to know
that in this body we call, “the Church,” there are no outcasts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we are trying to serve Christ in all
persons, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the
dignity of every human being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyvQhaNGiKX0Th7FwTq9LkP5xjx51s_ZIQ-8bLuVZMH_B8E2a2gj3hbja4Xo0b-60q_0tXtw9xQWA8GApFe5CSaCBpdgcnhs0Xs6rPhGpKo5RKWjJP13gVp1NwPGgf5-dWSRrcYLzR0w/s1600/Icons+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyvQhaNGiKX0Th7FwTq9LkP5xjx51s_ZIQ-8bLuVZMH_B8E2a2gj3hbja4Xo0b-60q_0tXtw9xQWA8GApFe5CSaCBpdgcnhs0Xs6rPhGpKo5RKWjJP13gVp1NwPGgf5-dWSRrcYLzR0w/s320/Icons+008.JPG" width="245" /></a></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-66735828967908832362012-02-15T11:55:00.000-05:002012-02-15T20:22:14.150-05:00<br />
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<em>The following prayer was given to me by Father Nick Minich</em> <em>on the occasion of my ordination to the priesthood on February 16, 1964. It has been a daily prayer for these past forty-eight years. I give thanks for the gift, the joy, and the privilege of that call.</em></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 28pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";">LORD JESUS, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You have called me to your priesthood
to carry on the work which you began.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fit me, I pray you, for this task with such faith that
through my voice even the disbelieving may listen to you word;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With such hope that through my hands even the despairing may
be held fast in your grip;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And with such charity that through my heart even the despised
may know that you can never cease to love them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Join me so deeply to yourself that no one I meet shall lie
beyond your saving grace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans";">AMEN.</span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-55097873156590663962012-02-09T10:57:00.003-05:002012-02-09T10:57:34.715-05:00<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">FEBRUARY 12, 2012</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Year B)</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Homily</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Very Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2 KINGS 5: 1-15b — 1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27 — MARK
1:40-45</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-D_InwjpahqVioRx6l9OGQKZ1S25bVmwy8GAL2FpMPOtV479nbP6MAj888jzxt7Np5FWnE_bTGiah-Jjh6hvZ0yQLlfO694d-kheWEqQASTqoFnqDceZToN6sPqBSh_rEtSvsbchV-Xw/s1600/Sinai+Christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-D_InwjpahqVioRx6l9OGQKZ1S25bVmwy8GAL2FpMPOtV479nbP6MAj888jzxt7Np5FWnE_bTGiah-Jjh6hvZ0yQLlfO694d-kheWEqQASTqoFnqDceZToN6sPqBSh_rEtSvsbchV-Xw/s200/Sinai+Christ.jpg" width="124" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the season of
Epiphany, the time when the light of Christ is made known to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now is the time for us to shine the light of
Christ into this darkened world in which we are living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today and throughout this liturgical season
of Epiphany, we are hearing stories of healing – one of the means through which
Jesus expressed the authority and the love of God in a given moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hear later in Mark’s Gospel, how Jesus
spoke of his coming passion and death, inviting those who loved him to take up the
cross and follow him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We watch as he
broke bread with his disciples for the last time and was immediately arrested
and executed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, we stand before
the empty tomb early on Easter morning to be told that he is alive, he is
risen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a powerful and soul-shaking
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit down and read Mark’s Gospel
right through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not very long, and
you will be overwhelmed by the story as it unfolds before you all at one time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If you do that, you will be
caught up in the truth that the kingdom of God is right here, right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A sense of immediacy and urgency will
overtake you and you will see the true mission of Jesus to show us who this God
is and what God is like, and how we are to live if we choose to be a part of
the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are living in a world
where we need to recapture the sense of urgency that existed in the early
church and today make an immediate and urgent call for light, a call for
reconciliation, healing, and peace -- a call for God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus began this work of
reconciliation by touching and healing those who turned to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what the kingdom of God is all about:
touching, healing, loving, caring for each person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus used his miracles to get the people’s
attention so they could hear his teaching; hear that he was calling them to
come and find new life; and for us to hear that we who have been called are now
sent to call others to come and see what we have discovered – that we are loved
and offered peace and new life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Is the Gospel relevant to
today’s world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You bet it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it relevant to each of us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is the Gospel of Christ relevant to you in
your life today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I think we sometimes miss in the whole
wonder of the Gospel is the fact that Jesus was sent to each one of us and that
his whole life, while caught up in the mission of the reconciliation of the
world, never lost its focus on the person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus stopped and touched the leper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In his grand scheme, his love and his desire to touch the lives of
people would cause him to pause to heal, to reach out to those who hungered for
what he came to give them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you
understand that this means that he came for you — you, yourself, just as you
are at this very moment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s reading
clearly reminds us of the directness and the immediacy of God’s love, desire,
and care for each of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stops and
turns toward us and says, “Peace, be whole.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">You see, we are invited into
a relationship with a God of Peace, who cares about the peace of the world and
peace among nations, and who also cares deeply about your peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we are called to pray for peace, we are
called to pray with and for one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus was always “person-centered.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God is “person-centered.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He so
loved the <i>world</i>,” but because it is your world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God desires peace for his creation, because
it is your home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God desires peace for
each of us and a sense of joy and health for every individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, by his example, Jesus is teaching us
about how we should be as his church, his family and community – to care for each
person and to love every person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we
are concerned with great and weighty issues – issues of war and peace – but we
must, also, turn to those around us, caring for the person next to us, and
showing that God loves and redeems <i>every individual </i>who will accept his
love – note, I said, accept, not earn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can get so preoccupied
with our plans and the building of institutions that we lose sight of the
primary mission of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Jesus,
we are called to draw others to God and, like Jesus, we are to show others who
God is and what God is like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Jesus,
we keep our eyes on God and his love for the world, but, at the same time, we
must never lose sight of the leper who was touched and healed, for we, in fact,
are the leper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the individuals
who are touched by the compassion of Christ and the love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been healed because he has chosen to
do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we are the prophets, the
wounded healers, the restored and reconciled sinners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the Beloved’s beloved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-58468789404712408042012-02-01T16:27:00.000-05:002012-02-01T16:27:06.336-05:00The Revolution<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER
THE EPIPHANY</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">FEBRUARY 5, 2012 </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Year B<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah
40:21-31 – 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 – Mark 1:29-39<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNwtyr4QyWr2-JWP1UM63XC9iKXssVEhgqBxFmUSbnIkd1c0OlI4q64EvDuRVqd2K7RD470Xmy-ln4LfIl3OdUO0cuXvXHsIJFkAUyzqi81057F-166qSTyrSymssZFKTi9ftH27iJQQ/s1600/IMG_0663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNwtyr4QyWr2-JWP1UM63XC9iKXssVEhgqBxFmUSbnIkd1c0OlI4q64EvDuRVqd2K7RD470Xmy-ln4LfIl3OdUO0cuXvXHsIJFkAUyzqi81057F-166qSTyrSymssZFKTi9ftH27iJQQ/s200/IMG_0663.JPG" width="200" /></a>It’s a simple little story, but the reading we just heard from Mark is one
of the most moving, and most challenging, parts of this gospel. It’s from the
first chapter of Mark, and it describes the second part of a sort of model day
in the ministry of Jesus and sets before us the essence of the Gospel story. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last Sunday and this Sunday, the Gospel tells
us of what Jesus was about, how he saw his work, and the foundation of prayer
and commitment to his mission that held his attention and his desire for what
he came to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one having authority,
grace, and love from God, Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, cared for the
poor, and drew the outcasts to himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is what the Gospel is all about. That is what God had sent His Son
to do.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Isaiah said, “Have you not known?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you not understood from the foundations
of the earth? . . . Lift up your eyes and see. . . The Lord is the everlasting
God . . . He does not faint or grow weary . . . He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
what God is all about.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Saint Paul wrote, “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel . . . I am
entrusted with a commission . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do
it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.” That
is what God has called us to do and who God has called us to be – extensions of
the mission of proclamation of the Gospel and a continuation of the heart of
God to reach all people.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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Jesus is the embodiment (the incarnation) of the mind and
heart of God – the same God Isaiah declared for all to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus then called those around him, like his
disciples and, later, Paul, to take up the mind and heart of God which would
not only dramatically change their lives, but begin a revolution in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This revolution, which you and I
have been made a part, is the most heart rending, mind changing, spirit
transforming, life renewing act in the history of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is enough to fuel its participants with
the courage, energy, and enthusiasm to set the world on fire for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the call to go out in the name of Jesus
to bring our community of faith to all people who seek God and who hunger to be
a part of his family, his new creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Is this the spirit, the fire, which we bring to the world
and to the church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we ready to be
revolutionaries?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is being a part of such
a revolution why we have become members of the church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this faith we proclaim bringing about in
us a heart rending, mind changing, spirit transforming, life renewing existence
in our personal lives, as well in our family life, and our corporate
lives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Looking at this level of commitment, we may be inclined to
say in our hearts that we really didn’t bargain for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we believe in God and in Jesus Christ,
but maybe we are not sure about taking on all of the implications of being a
Christian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me, a part of a
revolution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not my style, we may
say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely that is not what it means to
be a Christian, is it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really,
everything should be in moderation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the more insidious and undermining
attitudes that has been ingrained deeply in us as Episcopalians is the idea
–<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in which we have often taken with
great pride, by the way – that everything should be in moderation and good
taste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have lived with a deep
suspicion of too much zeal and overt passion about what we believe and how we live
our lives and what our expectations are of ourselves and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if we are to take the Gospel to heart
(and in fact take the entirety of Scripture seriously) we are talking about a
major life change.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At an Annual Meeting at the Cathedral where I used to be the
Dean, I said, “To discover God's will for us, to energize our commitment to his
mission, and to strengthen our own relationship with him and with one another,
we must begin with a discussion of our own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">renewal,
repentance, </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> personal discipleship</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Renewal</i> means to
reignite the fire within – the light of the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means that we seek to discover Christ in
our lives, not just in the life of a book, or a sermon, or an institution, but
within ourselves, deep in our hearts and minds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marcus Borg wrote a book some years ago, entitled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Discovering Jesus Again, For The First Time.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is renewal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking for and discovering Christ in us in a
new and creative way that allows us to begin again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New life – a new creation – was the way <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place></st1:city> described
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How often have we heard, or,
perhaps, even said ourselves, “Oh, how I wish I could start all over.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is “renewal” in Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
We enable that renewal with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">repentance</i> – by simply turning loose of what is inhibiting our
movement into renewal and new life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is the freedom that occurs within us when we accept the forgiveness already
given to us and live as forgiven and forgiving people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not only saying, “I am sorry,” as
important as that is, but it is turning around, facing a new direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to turn around, we have to let go of
the distraction to which we are clinging, and face God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a “re-orientation” -- turning to the
east – the direction in which we turn to pray – the way we face God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>TURN TO GOD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I heard of a teacher of autistic children who would take hold of the
child’s chin and gently direct the child to look into her eyes and say, “Look
at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pay attention.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to look into God’s eyes and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pay attention</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
That movement in our lives then empowers us and sets us free
to follow Christ – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">personal discipleship.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This life as a Christian is not a spectator
sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all an integral part of
the “game.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to march to
the sound of a different drummer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
cannot be about business as usual; we cannot order our life as a church, or
individually, as if Christ had not come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He has come, he is here, we have seen him, he is changing the world, and
he expects us to live as if he really has shown up in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now we must be about the business of building
a community that is founded on the reality that God is with us; and that
community is where we discover that the desire of God for us and the great
longing for God in our hearts are integral elements of our being<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Are we prepared for change, new directions, and renewed
energy that will enable our mission and ministry in this congregation and this
community to meet the challenge that lies ahead to be the living Body of
Christ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we prepared to light a
fire?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What this challenge requires of us
is a willingness to be very attentive to God and to the needs of his
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires us to be open and
vulnerable enough to allow Christ to draw us into a new and deeper sense of
connectedness and wholeness with God and one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
It is really very simple, not always very easy, but very
simple: “The Lord requires no more of the people than the justice that has been
circumvented; the loving kindness that has been neglected; and the humility
that accepts God’s revelation of truth and unlimited forgiveness for all of his
people.” [<i>Synthesis</i>]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
This gospel revolution is that the love of God is the
ethical, moral, and spiritual standard by which the people of God are called to
live and to relate to God and one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seems obvious and simple, yet, we have managed throughout the history of
the church to build up a systematic way of edging love aside and replacing that
central place of God’s love and desire for us with our own agendas, often
judgmental, almost always political in one way or another, institutionally
self-preserving, and exclusive – the antithesis of the revolution begun by
Jesus. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
We are not here to be entertained or to be coddled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our mission is not to create empires or
personal kingdoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not called to
be curators of ecclesiastical museums, or developers of social clubs or
benevolent societies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are here to
worship God, care for one another, proclaim the Gospel, and to live like we
believe what we say we believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
here to do justice, love steadfastly, and to walk humbly with our God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So simple. Not always very easy, but very
simple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-79611391477719902902011-12-26T11:18:00.003-05:002011-12-26T11:22:59.645-05:00The Arrogance of Fundamentalism<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A few years ago, a tee shirt appeared that had Lucy (of Peanuts fame) announcing, “If Everyone Agreed With Me, They’d All Be Right!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I am not saying that is the definition of a Fundamentalist, but it may describe the attitude of some fundamentalists I have known.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlgVBfvAojE/TvieFaQB3NI/AAAAAAAAAEg/6x5Zwk2canU/s1600/Icons+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlgVBfvAojE/TvieFaQB3NI/AAAAAAAAAEg/6x5Zwk2canU/s200/Icons+003.JPG" width="152" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We see the presence of fundamentalism at every level – in religions, nations, and families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within Christianity and in each of its denominations there are the biblical fundamentalists, as well as doctrinal fundamentalists and the rigid adherents to Canon Law and/or “tradition.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even within the broad strokes of Anglicanism we find proponents of Biblical fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism, and ultra-conservatism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This particularly has come to the fore within the Anglican Communion with the attempt to develop an “Anglican Covenant” which seeks a uniform conformity to a more conservative tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been aimed particularly at the Episcopal Church in the United States because of its move toward inclusiveness, openness, and its presumed liberal views of human behavior and interfaith participation. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The fundamentalists, in every case, seem to convey to the larger church and to the entire community that they have a lock on the truth and there is a ready willingness to condemn others who may differ from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further, the Christian fundamentalists believe that there is no salvation outside of the beliefs of their own faith community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I cannot and will not participate in condemning other religions and other faith seekers saying that they are cast out of God’s love and presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Christian, for me personally, Christ has been the way, the truth, and the life, and I have come to God through Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, do I believe that Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, and other people of faith in God and who seek God’s presence in their lives and in the life of the world are outside of the presence and love of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely not!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply do not believe that the loving, redeeming, reconciling, and faithful God believes that way either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I believe that the likes of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Dali Lama, or Mahatma Gandhi live or lived outside of the grace of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think these holy people have drawn us to God as clearly as the Tutus, the Mertons, the Bonhoeffers, and the Mother Teresas of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank God for all people of faith and together let us grow in grace and peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The extremism of the fundamentalists of every sort and the self-righteousness of those who are convinced that they are the only saved ones and the sole possessors of the truth leaves little room for discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The popularity of taking a fundamentalist position is, in some part, because accepting a rigid adherence to a given tradition requires so little thought on the part of the adherents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are told the narrow confines of what they are to believe and therefore there is no need for real intellectual participation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there is no one as quite as “right” as those who are convinced that God has given them the truth and all others are outside of the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas Merton remarked about the rigidity of some Christians who consider themselves to be among the “right:”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 31.5pt 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. . . [Some] keep turning the Cross to their own purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, it is for them a sign of contradiction: the awful blasphemy of the religious magician who makes the Cross contradict mercy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, of course, is the ultimate temptation of Christianity!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To say that Christ has locked all the doors, has given one answer, settled everything and departed, leaving all life enclosed in the frightful consistency of a system outside of which there is damnation, and inside of which there is the intolerable flippancy of the saved—while nowhere is there any place left for the mystery of the freedom of divine mercy, which alone is truly serious and worthy of being taken seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 472.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>— <i>Raids on the Unspeakable</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Merton did not have much patience with those who thought they had the truth locked up in their law and whose fundamentalism (whether it be to the Bible, the law, the nations, or tradition) blocked humans from freedom, movement of the Spirit, and genuine truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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</div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-54872641403915010682011-12-16T08:52:00.000-05:002011-12-16T08:52:02.238-05:00The Incarnation: Liberation and Hope<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPuiuzFafdC9ZZiZ9dOHXW9IVsaZIpV9xGqVXyO0q7OLyKqwCZBSUdBPZXIoInSF_lMpCjAu9BRzhwigiYuv2WSfRwH2djD8PwJW7Bd_gWuBb6ro3D1Ql79Afr6oSfI2LyT_Lzp7fyhg/s1600/Madonna+-+Moscow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPuiuzFafdC9ZZiZ9dOHXW9IVsaZIpV9xGqVXyO0q7OLyKqwCZBSUdBPZXIoInSF_lMpCjAu9BRzhwigiYuv2WSfRwH2djD8PwJW7Bd_gWuBb6ro3D1Ql79Afr6oSfI2LyT_Lzp7fyhg/s320/Madonna+-+Moscow.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.3in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The secular observation of Christmas that happens once a year, mainly influenced by the likes of Wall-Mart, Penneys, Macy’s, and Sears, along with the ecclesiaastical celebration of the Birth of the Christ, a sacred and wonderful liturgical expression of worship, are both secondary to the understanding that the Incarnation is a year around, lifelong<b> </b>way of living for the Christian. The business about the Birth of Christ is a genuine revolution that we sometimes seem to overlook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God, by sending the Son into the world, has changed life forever, and we are a part of this radical revolution setting about the business of turning this world upside down.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are empowered to move beyond<i> thinking</i> about God, and intellectualizing our faith, into <i>knowing</i> God in daily life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is real, God lives in us, and God is available to us in the present moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is unfortunate that in many of the distractions of the sentimental customs and the myths that surround Christmas – as much fun as they are and as much joy as they offer – we have lost much of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">power</i> of the Incarnation, the knowledge and meaning of “Emmanuel," God with us in our own lives and in the life of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life with God is all about relationship with God and with one another.<o:p></o:p></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">John and Paul, not to mention the likes of Thomas Merton, taught that all Christian theology is a radical liberation theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic Christian message is that we have been set free from the limitations of our minds, liberated from the chains of our sins, released from the constraints of the law, and emancipated from the bondage of our fallen nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In freedom we are the heirs of the love, grace, and power of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this liberation we are not only incorporated into union with God, but we are also placed in a special bond of unity with one another as brothers and sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This moves us far beyond theology into a real, fleshy, mission based life with God in the world in which we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We have been given a great responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are forgiven and we are reconciled with God, so we are called to forgive those around us and be agents of reconciliation in a world where many have become alienated from God and from each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is our life changed but we are empowered to proclaim a Gospel of liberation and hope to all people who desperately need the good news that they are loved, forgiven, fed and cared for, as well as, offered eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gifted people must employ their gifts for the good of all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the gifted ones, people who "have seen a great light . . . for to us a child is born, to us a son is given." [Isaiah 9:2]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We who have seen the light of Christ are obliged, by the greatness of the grace that has been given us, to make God’s presence known to the ends of the earth, beginning in our own churches, within our own families, and in our own community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.3in 0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCoSJhHgHzLwKP6ZvyIBiFP8j8-XdMYwyqQWhCDhXLVe_2L1BMuhnaFXqKgTDBpPcUKp3CsOn_li29g5RlE6KQh6lf19_QDEjF7UzFNSqntBJNXg_TBHgVJgF_hipOXUr3GDSCK7XsAE/s1600/tmertonstudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCoSJhHgHzLwKP6ZvyIBiFP8j8-XdMYwyqQWhCDhXLVe_2L1BMuhnaFXqKgTDBpPcUKp3CsOn_li29g5RlE6KQh6lf19_QDEjF7UzFNSqntBJNXg_TBHgVJgF_hipOXUr3GDSCK7XsAE/s1600/tmertonstudy.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"We do not understand that this business about the crib is the real revolution that once and for all turned everything upside down, so that nothing has ever been, or ever can be, the same again." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">---Thomas Merton, <i>Road to Joy</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-1095538601208974012011-12-09T18:26:00.000-05:002011-12-09T18:26:28.197-05:00Advent and the Incarnation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUNXuJlWjvpFz7IybGEqmq1HOiQr8fvWaocXpilaeG-bJ6SES1TTpjel_zj4fUTv9hRQRqqlogGpJJfqbREmXRut6smHHOuMq8ty72JaUc88334OcGv4yI2pPYwgaNuqMefOQJk2g1Fc/s1600/Icons+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUNXuJlWjvpFz7IybGEqmq1HOiQr8fvWaocXpilaeG-bJ6SES1TTpjel_zj4fUTv9hRQRqqlogGpJJfqbREmXRut6smHHOuMq8ty72JaUc88334OcGv4yI2pPYwgaNuqMefOQJk2g1Fc/s200/Icons+002.JPG" width="135" /></a>The season of Advent, according to the tradition and wisdom of the Church, is intended to be a time of quiet preparation of our hearts and souls to meet the Incarnate God. It is intended as a period of watchful anticipation, repentance, prayer, and special devotion, preparing us for the miracle of the birth of the Son of God. Advent is meant to allow the turbulence of our harried lives to settle (wholly in contradiction to the message given by society), and be a time to move into an inner stillness where we encounter the Christ within and discover peace and hope. Is that the way this Advent is for you? For whatever good intentions and design of the Church Year, very few of us, I suspect, actually experienced Advent in the way in which it was intended.<br />
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We live in extremely anxious and troubled times. Nationally and around the world there is a fierce anger, frustration, self-centeredness and attitude of greed and lust for power. There is an genuine of fear of job loss, homelessness, poverty, and, for many, there is a prevailing sense of hopelessness. This is all in addition to the usual seasonal anxiety of too much activity, too many tasks to accomplish, all producing too much stress in our lives, and too much distress in the lives of those around us. We are left with questions of where are we now with all of this and what is next, not to mention the ongoing everyday demands of family, church, friends, and our own inner drivenness to accomplish, to succeed, or to simply survive. This is all enough to wear down the most well disciplined and committed saint. We can lament the loss of the real meaning of Advent. I complain about this every year, but I doubt seriously that we can make it any different than it is. As much as we would like to be able to ignore the realities of secular living they are not going to disappear. So, how are we to live out the contemplative part of our relationship to God and with one another?<br />
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It is now, in the reality of the present moment, that the hush of grace descends upon us. This is the time to acknowledge every anxiety, every fear, every sadness, every pain of unreconciled relationships, every unresolved crisis, every need to understand, every desire to control, and then turn them over to God and simply be still. It is in stillness and grace that we are able to recognize and to receive the greatest gift of all — the incarnation of God in Christ. What this means is not simply some theological theory, but it means that God is one with us. God is participating in the life of creation. God is directly a part of our life -- not only in a text book, not just in the Bible, not hypothetically in the words of some preacher, but, in fact, in as real a way as possible. God is in our daily life and the Holy One lives in us and with us. Now, I want you to understand that I really believe this — we live in the sure hope of the reality of the presence of God personally and directly in the present moment.<br />
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"This is not God in a cloud, or God in a sunset, or God in tablets of stone, or God as a moral force, or God as a theological concept. Not God in a sermon or in a sacrament. But the humanization of God. The naturalness of God. The simplicity of God. The unprecedented self-communication of God."<br />
---- H. King Oehmig<br />
<i></i>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-19215195392394673032011-11-07T10:35:00.001-05:002011-11-07T10:38:14.768-05:00Pray for Peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4j7sm6qxUav7T3gRqj1MMmSXxSGLxdHAhE29kLdbqKRaNWkFs5aIXZrgD2Li5sV2Fj5t6e5YlYrjZ8DNk1-1AbRImeg6BnVc3ALacZb06vFPK1EAVa_TjJcvrEjIA2DdhyXjpEkaNfk/s1600/Canterbury+and+Rome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4j7sm6qxUav7T3gRqj1MMmSXxSGLxdHAhE29kLdbqKRaNWkFs5aIXZrgD2Li5sV2Fj5t6e5YlYrjZ8DNk1-1AbRImeg6BnVc3ALacZb06vFPK1EAVa_TjJcvrEjIA2DdhyXjpEkaNfk/s1600/Canterbury+and+Rome.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}">This photo was taken October 28, 2011, of the leaders </span><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}">of three great branches of the Church (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican), along with others, who gathered in Assisi for reflection, dialogue, and prayer for peace. This was a very significant, yet mainly overlooked, event that should have had world-wide impact.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}">In all of the noise and insanity of today's world, let us not forget the responsibility we have to pray and work for the peace and well-being of all of God's creation and all the nations and peoples. As people of faith, the task before us is to look for and expect to discover God in those around us -- in everyone -- not only those who claim to be Christian, but for all people everywhere. We spend so much time and energy </span><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">criticizing, judging, and alienating those around us and we ignore that we are, in fact, all children of God. It is our responsibility, as a people of faith, to see the Holy in all of our brothers and sisters and to rejoice with them in our common heritage as creatures of God. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We cannot set limits or boundaries on our love and respect for others anymore than God's love is limited, earned, or qualified. In God there are no outcasts. Among us are the poor and the rich, those who morn and those who rejoice, the meek and the not so meek, the hungry and the satisfied, the merciful and the not so nice, the pure and the not so pure, the peacemakers and, yes, even the troublemakers, and we are all part of the family of God.</span></span><br />
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<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the face of all, we must pray for peace, strive for the well-being of all creation, and work for justice for all peoples of the world. Living in God's creation we are all standing on "holy ground" where the boundaries between the sacred and the secular disappear and we are all one -- "spiritual beings," said Teilhard de Chardin, "having a human experience."</span></span>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-47590427900778964552011-11-03T16:00:00.004-04:002011-11-07T08:30:44.127-05:00FOR ALL THE SAINTS<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6-iHiX3uthB1ZViuDzL4HjbzWRTcGQB2Txwp44KkTKEJQPKYzCox8NPvG_GiB4pqZUgZzvir_XPke5PBn5kPTvOPkln-JCMl0I8YkiQTaJCeGvH8XoXF79gIxkLwwZJkgFnoZa_TdE0/s1600/Icons+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6-iHiX3uthB1ZViuDzL4HjbzWRTcGQB2Txwp44KkTKEJQPKYzCox8NPvG_GiB4pqZUgZzvir_XPke5PBn5kPTvOPkln-JCMl0I8YkiQTaJCeGvH8XoXF79gIxkLwwZJkgFnoZa_TdE0/s200/Icons+005.JPG" width="125" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>As Christians, the task for us is to first both expect and look for Christ in those around us — in everyone– not just those who claim Christianity, but all people of faith, all of God’s creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spend so much energy criticizing, judging, and alienating those around us that we often fail to realize that we are, in fact, in the presence of a saint, a child of God, a bearer of God's image and a carrier of God's grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trevor Huddleston, CR, one of the great Twentieth Century missionaries to Africa (and priest and mentor to a young Desmond Tutu), said:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My responsibility is always and everywhere the same: to see in my brothers and sisters more even than the personality and humanity that are theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My task is always and everywhere the same: to see Christ himself in them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 6.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> --- </span><i>Naught for Your Comfort<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That is the responsibility of every one of us – to see God in our brothers and sisters, to rejoice with them in our common heritage, and to celebrate that we are living together in the grace of the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within this Christian fellowship of ours is where we begin but we cannot end there nor set limits or boundaries to our love and respect anymore than God’s love is limited or qualified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among us are the poor and the rich, those who mourn and those who rejoice, the meek and the proud, the hungry and the satisfied, the merciful and the not so nice, the pure and the not so pure, the peacemakers and the troublemakers, but at the core we are all a part of the family of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-3436003517817288792011-10-25T09:25:00.002-04:002011-10-25T17:21:04.829-04:00Contemplative Living and Corporate Liturgy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilA-QCH9QbarLlpPj_zkFaFJ5dbe1j8WQ55YiPNt4JgyH7ZRb-ezf-AjAQ4E43d4c4Gkv6vTniOCfs_6RCv2c13g5sv4nb8-_FATscyEkZilXm2_jlFTe_TQAj8KMzvSKa3G7utvMxLNw/s1600/Icons+008+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilA-QCH9QbarLlpPj_zkFaFJ5dbe1j8WQ55YiPNt4JgyH7ZRb-ezf-AjAQ4E43d4c4Gkv6vTniOCfs_6RCv2c13g5sv4nb8-_FATscyEkZilXm2_jlFTe_TQAj8KMzvSKa3G7utvMxLNw/s200/Icons+008+%25282%2529.JPG" width="102" /></a>I have mentioned before Martin Laird's, <em>Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. </em>I re-read this portion the other day and it seemed to fit in with some significant thoughts and discussions I have had recently:<br />
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<div>"With so much focus on contemplative practice and interior stillness, what about other forms of prayer? Do they simply disappear? This does happen. But it is simply because a deeper discovery has been made. By the sheer grace of God our very being itself is prayer. . . Community prayer remains important, but how you participate in it changes. Liturgical prayer has a way of becoming a fountain of grace. The flow of this sourceless source is nothing other than the visible form of the great self-emptying sacramental flow of the ground of being. In former times it was common to speak of the liturgy on earth as a reflection of the liturgy in heaven. We don't speak of liturgy this way anymore, but this point of view makes more and more sense. For when we enter these doorways of silence the simplest truths of the liturgy are unveiled: liturgy, like creation itself, is the shimmering of eternity in time. Even in the most dismal of liturgies (and these are in no short supply) Christ is and has always been the only presider.</div><br />
<div>"However, just because we come to intuit this as the simplest truth about liturgical prayer, this does not necessarily mean that it is easy to cope with large doses of liturgy. The Benedictine monk John Chapman, has something rather sobering to say about this. In his classic <em>Spiritual Letters</em> he says, 'It is common enough for those who have any touch "mysticism" . . . to be absolutely unable to find any meaning in vocal prayers.' Chapman is not devaluing prayers we say privately or in common. He is putting his finger on a problem many contemplatives face. We find it difficult to pray with words. Communal prayer itself is not the issue. Contemplative prayer is the prayer of <em>just being.</em> Sadly much liturgical prayer is often hopelessly cerebral, self-conscious, verbose, and distracted (to say nothing of all those bits of paper waved in your face). This is no environment in which simplicity can easily flower. Each will have to negotiate these tensions for oneself."</div><br />
<div>As one who has always desired to grow ever more into a deeper contemplative space in the heart, but one who was called to a life-time as a liturgical leader, I have lived with and have sought to negotiate these tensions over the years. Increasingly, however, I find I am more and more desirous of the wordless silence and solitude of contemplative prayer. All the while, I remain convinced of the importance of liturgy (and the hope that it is "done" well) as the manner in which the community of faith can touch into the power, grace, and reality of the presence of the Holy One in the midst of our corporate life -- that sacred place where heaven and earth (the sacred and the secular) touch and we are placed in joyous harmony with God and one another.</div><br />
<div>I am convinced that it is in this way that the shell of this body, whether my body or the body of the church, is filled with the inner substance of that which is Holy and this inner substance is the very stuff of life that makes any sense out of our lives and the life of this strange and mysterious beast we call the institutional church.</div><br />
<div>NOTE: There is a new work by Martin Laird, <em>A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation</em> which I have purchased and I am looking forward to reading.</div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-75748615063139570102011-10-06T11:39:00.001-04:002011-10-08T10:49:07.966-04:0017 Pentecost - Proper 23 A<div style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">October 9, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Proper 23 -- Year A)</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Very Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor windowtext; border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Exodus 32:1-14 – Psalm 106 – Philippians 4:1-9 – Matthew 22:1-14<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMY5xPf9oo_n5UHdzllX_4HHvYBHRxJ5FYxq3_wz7Dapn_TenGSsk1Z-Bi2kRAua851PWNZcIGIDj6u-4jqZ69n7KGWS45ou1YnHam4Vy3e3MllV2dGrzjRED-I8EXmSalsMLeyl5Dv5A/s1600/Icons+009+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMY5xPf9oo_n5UHdzllX_4HHvYBHRxJ5FYxq3_wz7Dapn_TenGSsk1Z-Bi2kRAua851PWNZcIGIDj6u-4jqZ69n7KGWS45ou1YnHam4Vy3e3MllV2dGrzjRED-I8EXmSalsMLeyl5Dv5A/s200/Icons+009+%25282%2529.JPG" width="150" /></a>“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son” and those invited did not come . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the folks off the street – everyone – were all invited, but still some just did not get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, we just do not get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We either do not show up, or even if we do we simply don’t get the point, and just mush on with our grim little lives having missed the wonderful opportunity the King has offered us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just too sad!</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There is a story of a poor family in Europe about a century ago who planned to emigrate to the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They spent their entire savings to purchase the passage for all of them on the ship to the new world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The night before their departure from their small village their friends and neighbors brought them gifts of bread and cheese so that they would have something to eat during the long voyage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got to the ship the next day and found their small cabin, being the cheapest available, on the lowest deck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For days they remained in their quarters, having only their bread and cheese to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The teenage son had finally had about all of the dry bread and cheese he could stand and begged his father to do something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gave his son a quarter and told him he could go above to try to find an apple to buy to have something fresh to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boy was gone for such a long time the father got worried and went looking for him everywhere on the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, he came to the ship’s huge dining room and much to his surprise and horror there was his son in the middle of this beautiful dining room, sitting at a table with piles of fabulous food in front of him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He rushed over to the boy admonishing him sternly, saying that they could never afford that lavish dinner and they now they would all be in deep trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boy looked at him and said, “Oh, no, Father, it is okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, this entire banquet, all of this food, is all included in the price of the ticket!”</div><o:p></o:p><br />
So many Christians tend to be like that family – we just do not get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We struggle along trying to be good church folk, but we find it all to be a bit difficult and, at times, sort of grim, like trying to exist on dry, stale cheese sandwiches, when all the while there is laid out for us a wonderful feast which is all included in the cost of discipleship – the price of the ticket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am often reminded of the very severe young evangelist who stood up and declared with the most sad face, “I have been so happy since I found Jesus!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Jesus has called us to take up the cross and follow him, but this journey takes us always toward God and God’s great banquet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are invited to feast with Christ now, the Kingdom is already begun, and we are guests at this great banquet where we, along with each other, are nourished by the extravagant grace of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can so easily get focused only on the price we think we must pay, the sacrifices that we have to make, the struggles we have with our own inadequacies, and the sense that we are all alone on this difficult journey of faith, that we fail to see and delight in the marvelous grace of God and the joy of being a member of this great fellowship of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not called to be some poor band of brothers and sisters who have to earn our way into heaven, but, rather, we are a community of the faithful and redeemed sinners who have accepted the power and grace of God in our lives and now want to share that joy with the world around us.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">God’s grace – God’s love – is really amazing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David Hope, the former Archbishop of York, wrote:</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">"I dare to venture that in spite of all we may say, teach, or preach, all of us are to a very large extent caught up in “self-justifying works,” so that “amazing grace” is almost a stranger to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet it is in and through “amazing grace” that the Lord has laid his hands upon us, to call us out and into a ministry in his church . . . and it is only in and through amazing grace that our ministry is nurtured, encouraged and enabled, and ourselves built into a holy temple to the Lord."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Yet, we so often plow our way through the business of the church, through the struggle to do the right thing, trying to get it right, that we miss the joy and, yes, the outright fun and delight, of being a part of this fellowship, the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember going to a clergy conference some years ago put on by the Church Insurance Corporation about all the dangers of being sued and the limitations the Church Insurance wanted to put on us about counseling and spiritual direction because of the monetary liabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of our number declared, “This just isn’t much fun anymore!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How terribly sad – more than sad, it is tragic!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the joy and wonder of ministry and worship are gone from the church, the joy and wonder of serving God and one another soon disappears from among the faithful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the church is joyless and hope is gone, then we are no longer the true Body of Christ, but only an empty shell of who God intends us to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archbishop Hope went on to say:</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> "There is, therefore, an urgent need in our church for the renewal of all of our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit . . . to allow the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to be at work in every part of us . . . so that we may prove what the will of God is, what is good, acceptable and perfect."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What does this spirit of renewal require of us today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I firmly believe that it means that we are prepared to accept the gracious invitation of our Lord to joyfully participate in the celebration of our life together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means that we vigorously seek a change of heart and a new direction in our lives and the life of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This spirit of renewal says something of the kind of priorities we set for ourselves and our congregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It says that we not only accept the invitation to this banquet, but that we come prepared to celebrate with joy all that is given to us and to offer that abundance to everyone around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike the king in today’s story, Jesus is not concerned with the actual clothes we wear, but rather with what attitude and spirit we clothe ourselves when we come together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are going to try to be a part of the Kingdom without a genuine willingness to enter fully into the spirit of the community and be open to accept the power, grace, beauty, joy, and love of God in our midst, then Jesus is saying we have no business in the banquet hall.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We are all called to clothe ourselves with the Holy Spirit, seeking first the renewal of our own lives by turning to God in repentance and prayer and with open hands and hearts be filled with a sense of joy and peace that comes only by God’s grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We “frozen chosen” (as Episcopalians have sometimes been called) can be critical of some of the excesses of our more charismatic brothers and sisters, but folks, say what you will about the hand-raising, happy clappy, praise-shouting atmosphere of their worship, they certainly sound like they are having more fun that we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I fear that sometimes the church may have come down with terminal boredom!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not necessarily suggesting that we get into anything wild, but I am suggesting that we open ourselves sufficiently to the presence of the Holy Spirit that our hearts can be set afire with the power of God and that our life together will be a living celebration of God’s love for us and all those who are a part of our fellowship.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Out of our life together, I pray that our joy will be so energized that our ministry will be one of love and hope for all the seekers of a better and more meaningful, godly, and happy life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in that spirit that we then care for the hungry and the homeless, the poor and the dispossessed, the sick and lonely, the fearful and fainthearted; to teach the children, tend to the elderly, and seek the gracious presence of God in our hearts and the heart of our church, and discover the heart of God in every person – no exceptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what is all included in the price of this ticket we have been given to the heavenly banquet.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Saint Paul reminded us, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Lord is near.”</div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-32466854787219448612011-10-05T19:36:00.000-04:002011-10-05T19:36:04.864-04:00From Father Paul Bresnahan<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><em>I have lifted this good prayer directly from my friend Paul's blog. It is worth sharing:</em></span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">A Prayer of Self Dedication</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">by Paul Bresnahan</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">St. Francis Day 2011</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjecS6Njficmr7xlt_ncAFgS0vT9oAlh543162E_oXb6o58pLWrisYQJAF005GE-NUo9Il2naa0YeBxdSp9BgwIgvoIq4H2iiiYCo83VdA9WWy9ZEXUR4c519_WHQe0fvMsi3twvar19zg/s1600/Icons+008+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjecS6Njficmr7xlt_ncAFgS0vT9oAlh543162E_oXb6o58pLWrisYQJAF005GE-NUo9Il2naa0YeBxdSp9BgwIgvoIq4H2iiiYCo83VdA9WWy9ZEXUR4c519_WHQe0fvMsi3twvar19zg/s200/Icons+008+%25282%2529.JPG" width="102" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Now in the quiet of the day, I beckon to my soul and listen.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">There is only silence</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">It is a silence I love to return to.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Because I am not alone there.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">In that silence I come to my heart of hearts.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The silence becomes a Presence.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">And comes to life in a way that invites me to love.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The Presence wants to love me.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">I resist that.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">But the silent Presence insists.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">I look again into the mirror of my soul and see the mystery</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">It wells up within me to gratitude.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">I search for a name for the mystery.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">And then do I remember God.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">I discover that God is there within my heart.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">And God’s heart beats within me and among us.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">There is a love that speaks to me.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">And extends its Heart toward me and fills me.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">I find myself aware and awake.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">To the joy of life and sorrow of suffering; the ugliness of hateful violence.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The noble beauty of creative art, </span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The sin that destroys the self and seeks to destroy others.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">God's heart moves in mine and dispels the fear.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Hear the Word of God and listen</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">God requires justice, love, mercy and compassion</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">And Jesus reaches out his arms to the farthest ends of every human heart.</span></span></div><div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Here and now I dedicate myself to Jesus.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">In the poor and the homeless, the hungry and those who suffer.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The heart of Jesus moves in me, and the love of God </span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Knows no bounds.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-13794960337539234292011-10-03T14:54:00.001-04:002011-10-03T14:56:53.508-04:00A Blessing of the Animals<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilwqH9aMLhdbhBs9WAu8MxTkpAZJ_Epntj4OqEbjMF845P_0twi4a9fL6ZeX8F9tp1GTU8DjyW3d7S58m_n4sIW4_z41r7az02cIbe5pQ_n061gJiz1Vo_KvAnnZ10q2JQTu6yW3AChAw/s1600/Niska+Nikki+June+2006+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilwqH9aMLhdbhBs9WAu8MxTkpAZJ_Epntj4OqEbjMF845P_0twi4a9fL6ZeX8F9tp1GTU8DjyW3d7S58m_n4sIW4_z41r7az02cIbe5pQ_n061gJiz1Vo_KvAnnZ10q2JQTu6yW3AChAw/s200/Niska+Nikki+June+2006+003.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold";">The Blessing of the Animals</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";"><o:p><em> </em>-- This blessing is from an order of service put together by Bill Hopper for the use of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Miami. Bill was at the time, the organist and choir master at Trinity, and, as you can tell, a lover of animals. During the service of the Blessing of the Animals, I would go to each animal present and give this blessing. It always filled me with emotion and joy. <em>(If any would like a copy of the entire service, let me know by email and I will send you a copy.)</em></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";">Officiant: </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.</span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";">People: </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.</span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";">The officiant will then bless the animals, saying</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">May your days be full of sunshine and good things to eat. May your owners and companions treat you always with respect and kindness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And may you continue to praise God, your Creator, each in your own way and kind, by simply being what you are. And the blessing of God: Father,+ Son,+ and Holy Spirit+ be always with you. </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";">Amen.</span></i></strong><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">After all have been blessed, the officiant continues:</span></span></i></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;"><span style="font-size: large;">Almighty God, who made everything good, teach us to love what You have made. Help us to see </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">You in the stars and planets, in rocks and rivers, in trees and flowers, and especially in all our fellow animals which You have entrusted to our loving care. </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic";">Amen.</span></i></span></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-53518628676717572982011-10-03T10:01:00.000-04:002011-10-03T10:01:38.891-04:00Soul Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRfL72GqH-PNuSjd2yqlUfLGB3CtqDPrPX2_umDdYDQFW0ANSawlVQiAxPXiBAqH0z0ZE8LCCk1RUyU27i6PWpxzjIi1LzV93QSkvR7Xsf2Sdc9rY7TSIFuCuvY7HZVU5hw40wptmX70/s1600/Niska++005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRfL72GqH-PNuSjd2yqlUfLGB3CtqDPrPX2_umDdYDQFW0ANSawlVQiAxPXiBAqH0z0ZE8LCCk1RUyU27i6PWpxzjIi1LzV93QSkvR7Xsf2Sdc9rY7TSIFuCuvY7HZVU5hw40wptmX70/s1600/Niska++005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRfL72GqH-PNuSjd2yqlUfLGB3CtqDPrPX2_umDdYDQFW0ANSawlVQiAxPXiBAqH0z0ZE8LCCk1RUyU27i6PWpxzjIi1LzV93QSkvR7Xsf2Sdc9rY7TSIFuCuvY7HZVU5hw40wptmX70/s200/Niska++005.jpg" width="141" /></a><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">My heart is captured by the wonderful Siberian Huskies that have been in my life. Niska died this past July -- a very sad time. He was 13 which is a good long life for a Husky and he was doing very well up to the last few days. Niska was a truly marvelous dog.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BrcqMUQAjZTnJR7yKzonWAhuh-fN0CcBEs318FSEwT5Of4IeXwKWaMP3aEuQ4oeWjpYhdQV9mE2gtt_JZIPV2lOpjjz1Ax3l9tiTTEIO_CDsngzYjFtxaG3Wc6sG9zxqAMLM3X-GO5w/s1600/Niska+Nikki+June+2006+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BrcqMUQAjZTnJR7yKzonWAhuh-fN0CcBEs318FSEwT5Of4IeXwKWaMP3aEuQ4oeWjpYhdQV9mE2gtt_JZIPV2lOpjjz1Ax3l9tiTTEIO_CDsngzYjFtxaG3Wc6sG9zxqAMLM3X-GO5w/s200/Niska+Nikki+June+2006+009.jpg" width="160" /></a><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Nikki is doing very well and, while she is 11, she acts and moves like a three year old. I had two other Huskies in my life: Kree, when I was a teenager, and Grey Wolf, who was with us when our girls were small. They were all wonderful companions and Nikki joyfully carries on her part as a faithful and dear friend. </span></span><br />
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<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Matthew Fox referred to his Golden Retriever as his "spiritual director." I do not claim that my Huskies have been my spiritual directors, but they are certainly my soul friends. In them one can truly see the essence of the Holy.</span></span><br />
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<span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">I found this wonderful piece which seems fitting as we come to Saint Francis' Day and the blessing and thanksgiving for our animals and all creatures and creation:</span></span><br />
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<div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">MY HEART BELONGS TO A SIBERIAN HUSKY</span></span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">The Husky is a beauty,</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Magnificent and smart.</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">It wasn't long before I knew</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">That the dog had won my heart.</span></span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Powerful yet graceful,</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">With eyes that pierce your soul--</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">A gentle wolf-like spirit,</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">And a heart of purest gold.</span></span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Affectionate and loving,</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">Devoted to the end--</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">I can't imagine life without</span></span></div><div align="center"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;">My Husky--my best friend.</span></span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-30817729661736245052011-10-03T08:59:00.000-04:002011-10-03T08:59:46.880-04:00Saint Francis Day -- October 4<div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: left;">Richard Rohr on Saith Francis:</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1o72JYw8jrUPSjk4_J3gmykf8womrN61AWOOcImvInt2gq-4y-kMqPXMO1LQOxelwXkKMEhdm35QcmxYH4HAFjvumYjRi7tXwCd80gFNXR8JtbjLfvZo1zemZwJdazKLi2XckaaXRX0/s1600/thumbnailCACLIX3I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1o72JYw8jrUPSjk4_J3gmykf8womrN61AWOOcImvInt2gq-4y-kMqPXMO1LQOxelwXkKMEhdm35QcmxYH4HAFjvumYjRi7tXwCd80gFNXR8JtbjLfvZo1zemZwJdazKLi2XckaaXRX0/s1600/thumbnailCACLIX3I.jpg" /></a>"Francis’ first sermon was not to humans, but to birds. At the end of the sermon, he told the birds, “Now, go off, because I’ve told you who you are.” And he was addressing them as equals in creation, calling them “brother” and “sister,” as no one recorded had ever done before!</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvCb6Ne4Y8VPtQUhk3uV1YyNpPAWejOSqZFhL-2hi0U2rIyun0XLvxWkkHjWNjFYjDrIHkQbBk2FdyxSV_nLgzJ3pLDOnM-ducZ6k98E4cC7qovDrt1HX4ITPOPCYKhg2h1diYBXoIbU/s1600/Legend-of-St-Francis-of-Assisi-and-the-Wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvCb6Ne4Y8VPtQUhk3uV1YyNpPAWejOSqZFhL-2hi0U2rIyun0XLvxWkkHjWNjFYjDrIHkQbBk2FdyxSV_nLgzJ3pLDOnM-ducZ6k98E4cC7qovDrt1HX4ITPOPCYKhg2h1diYBXoIbU/s1600/Legend-of-St-Francis-of-Assisi-and-the-Wolf.jpg" /></a>"Throughout his life in his interactions with creatures—including a wolf, a lamb, worms, fish and bees—Francis is always telling them that <em>by their very existence they are inherently giving glory to God.</em> All things should be who they truly are, and that is enough. Every animal must simply “do itself.” Each creature has a unique thing to do in the circle of life, and in that simple performance it is giving glory to a unique aspect of God and making us happy besides—at least I hope so.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: left;">"I wonder if Francis preached to birds, to wolves, and to sheep because he knew they would believe him and act on their true identity more easily than we humans."</div><br />
<div class="attribution" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;">From <em><a __removedlink__1027228994__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=isz87kdab&et=1107944843125&s=10111&e=001VzPG6r7W7h9zz7Ka1BBm7A0RJYCowze_qDYGxXUe0A0yp_0HyGTdgNFJ-xHaV9UOjpJvXqDRD_XjzQstlybZK5mgjNTI4flRLNJMnIZmswwWI4Na7iH52CZUPbi_ysyHsdlqEzLuHBxJa61K7o869cqJRVklr8e41HhVDKhnnsrHZMRRbMFJItySDmHjTUmqdJFyuPkd_tE-aCNNcuw73oF9d73feHtIr-kt__Ect-ZlSw6l_G6pzcj8hmUajgMPDlH3TiaCgKM=" href="" target="_blank">In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation</a></em></div><div class="attribution" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="attribution" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;"></div><div align="left" class="attribution" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;"></div><div align="left" class="attribution" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;"></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-66771583695801616682011-09-29T10:05:00.001-04:002011-09-29T10:05:49.204-04:00Thoughts on the "Vineyard"<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks75LUhhRiniQXRNMAeZY8Lj4qzqm9pkUndeIOsjsSaNphyphenhyphennlo195gfeyuWXLd7eOkKWkwRfVJltQffb4aDCvVlWmxkpYtYi7HZe7nHRPBorhOGqnkR0FgYTRyGPKpM1L2YVLPuFvEnQ/s1600/IMG_0663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks75LUhhRiniQXRNMAeZY8Lj4qzqm9pkUndeIOsjsSaNphyphenhyphennlo195gfeyuWXLd7eOkKWkwRfVJltQffb4aDCvVlWmxkpYtYi7HZe7nHRPBorhOGqnkR0FgYTRyGPKpM1L2YVLPuFvEnQ/s400/IMG_0663.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Fairchild Gardens, Miami, Florida</span></div><div align="center"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some passing thoughts on the "Vineyard" as I prepare for Sunday's sermon. . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Isaiah understood so deeply the joy and wonder of God and God's gift as he sang his love-song. The Garden of the Beloved was a place that good fruit would be produced, not sour grapes; where justice not bloodshed was to be expected; where righteousness was found in place of cries from the oppressed. A beautiful garden of <em>good works, justice, </em>and<em> righteousness</em>.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. . . a place of <em><u>good works</u></em> where there are the hungry to feed, the homeless to shelter, the sick to heal, the lonely to comfort, the frightened to hold, the outcasts to bring in, the children to teach, and the elderly to care for. . . .</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This vineyard is also designed to be a place of <em><u>justice</u></em> where we shall not turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to the crying needs of the world around us, but rather be the eyes, the ears, <em>and</em> the voices of peace and what is right for all. We dare not be complacent about the inequities of our society. In this Garden of the Beloved, this world (nation and church) in which we live and which God has given us to care for, we are called to bring all of the energy and influence we have to stop wars, to end prejudice, to heal hatred, and to bring about a cessation of the social infirmities which demean and destroy the creatures of God. Here we are called to reclaim our prophetic voices, to speak in the name of the Beloved, to proclaim justice, to call to task the leaders of the nations and the communities in which we live to provide for the dignity and well-being of all people and all of creation. . . .</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Called to be a community of <em><u>righteousness</u></em>, not the smugness or the arrogance of the self-proclaimed "saved," but to be numbered with those who accept the need of God's forgiveness and the forgiveness of one another and who, then, live as forgiven people in an intimate, living, loving, dynamic, growing relationship with God and one another. . . .</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only in a covenant relationship with God and with one another can this community in which we live be who God would have us be, and do what God would have us do. </span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is only possible to the extent to which we are prepared not to be conformed to the things of this world but rather to allow the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to be at work in every part of us--in every aspect of our lives so that we may live into the will of the Holy One and seek to express what is good, acceptable, perfect. . . .</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessings and peace,</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Donald</span></div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-77322299787110072162011-09-28T14:49:00.003-04:002011-09-28T15:10:04.966-04:00The Active Life?I must say, I really love this quote from Merton. I suppose it speaks deeply to my desire and/or attitude, at least at this point in my life -- a time when I am seeking to recover my "right mind." Most certainly, we all need to find something of this balance and harmony between the active life and the inner life to find wholeness and maybe even a smattering of holiness . . .<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9u_W07rejRaE-A9ZNzATMAMAFU-auKgxJBpGnCP68dlkenE5G3p01jxVy6LQ9KhuhM3ozuefZqpetrvSM2bv8Yckm3eV33M0l5eO5XPHR-Qd1RH9dDAQW2Zn7EiE726zeuNt6GyjrWI/s1600/Thomas+Merton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9u_W07rejRaE-A9ZNzATMAMAFU-auKgxJBpGnCP68dlkenE5G3p01jxVy6LQ9KhuhM3ozuefZqpetrvSM2bv8Yckm3eV33M0l5eO5XPHR-Qd1RH9dDAQW2Zn7EiE726zeuNt6GyjrWI/s200/Thomas+Merton.jpg" width="160" /></a>From <em>The Way of Chuang Tzu</em>:<br />
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"Those who are caught in the machinery of power take no joy except in activity and change--the whirring of the machine! Whenever an occasion for action presents itself, they are compelled to act. They cannot help themselves. They are inexorably moved, like the machine of which they are a part. Prisoner in the world of objects, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter. They are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind! The active life! What a pity."Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-75215605671207223972011-09-27T08:52:00.002-04:002011-09-27T15:16:53.140-04:00A Sign of Contradiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4geSrcG_MDse8q2HceRbgZLSAexwqF-W7kx4Ih7cBWTlxUa732Ln8gB8W2UDp28ZnS5EfcmdknifHULPKhEXHxXIe2VU4o-GTRGtHapWk0Wprrh9NDxzv9wUo_310COgAXiE9ijdS29I/s1600/Icons+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4geSrcG_MDse8q2HceRbgZLSAexwqF-W7kx4Ih7cBWTlxUa732Ln8gB8W2UDp28ZnS5EfcmdknifHULPKhEXHxXIe2VU4o-GTRGtHapWk0Wprrh9NDxzv9wUo_310COgAXiE9ijdS29I/s200/Icons+001.JPG" width="146" /></a></div>Thomas Merton spoke decades ago of the arrogance ("flippancy") of some Christians which make the sign of the Cross a sign of exclusiveness and damnation, which contradicts everything that the Gospels tell us of the true nature and intention of Christ. This is especially apparent in many parts of contemporary, fundamentalist, "conservative" Christian groups which are having a huge impact on some areas of today's politcal world in this country. Merton wrote in <em>Raids on the Unspeakable</em>:<br />
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"The Cross is the sign of contradiction . . . but the magicians keep turning the Cross to their own purposes. Yes, it is for them, too, a sign of contradiction: the awful blasphemy of the religious magician who makes the Cross contradict mercy! This, of course, is the ultimate temptation of Christianity! To say that Christ has locked all the doors, given one answer, settled everything and departed, leaving all life enclosed in the frightful consistency of a system outside of which there is seriousness and damnation, inside of which there is the intolerable flippancy of the saved--while nowhere is there any place left for the mystery of the freedom of divine mercy, which alone is truly serious and worthy of being taken seriously."<br />
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I am convinced that the sign of the Cross is a direct contradiction of the self-righteous smugness and exclusiveness of some who claim to be Christian. For me, the Cross is the sign of God's all inclusive love and forgiveness -- the sign under which we can choose to live as a worshipping community of those who seek to live in the awareness of God's love for all of us, where there are no outcasts. <br />
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The sign and symbol of the Cross should point to our willingness to let God be at the heart of our life together, forming all of our actions, our decisions, the use of our resources, how we vote, and our care, not only for one another and those we like, but even our enemies, not allowing evil or revengefulness to rule our hearts, but to conquer evil with mercy and kindness.<br />
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Those who live under the sign of the Cross are those who are together called to be a people of radical hospitality and inclusive love and mercy -- a sacred community where all are welcome and invited to enter and find God.Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-5223679157550380462011-09-26T07:47:00.002-04:002011-09-26T07:50:32.091-04:00Running From God<span class="Apple-style-span"></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"><em>The following comment on Jonah 1:3 is from the Pastor of a local congregation here in Shannondale that I thought worth repeating:</em></span><br />
</div><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrxoSTgjXLgyW0ZrKKuxA0bn6QWxnp_S0eV_dcTPCOnQ0eitIF6eY4_ufcCNaf3zGafUQD7eGsvE58WitHPRfFQHgXeTUDxmgb4BDx0pY9eg19hn-O_V-sqiR49EhwUyXiKwtYzu9d04/s1600/Icons+007+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrxoSTgjXLgyW0ZrKKuxA0bn6QWxnp_S0eV_dcTPCOnQ0eitIF6eY4_ufcCNaf3zGafUQD7eGsvE58WitHPRfFQHgXeTUDxmgb4BDx0pY9eg19hn-O_V-sqiR49EhwUyXiKwtYzu9d04/s320/Icons+007+%25282%2529.JPG" width="238" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span">Running from God is the dumbest thing you could ever do. But have you ever done it? The funny thing is after you run as far as you can and you finally turn around and look, He’s still right there! The Psalmist said, “Where can I flee from your presence?” The answer is Nowhere! Why do we try to run from God? Well, in Jonah’s case it was because he was afraid. He was afraid of what he had to do, where he had to go, how it might turn out. He was afraid of God’s kindness. Why would he be afraid of God’s kindness? Well he was afraid that God was kinder than he was. And on that point Jonah was right. I’m afraid that God may want me to show more compassion, more patience, more sensitivity, more understanding, more love than I have to give. I’d rather run away from that, then get choked by the reality of what it means to die to my self and be a servant to others. Love my enemies? Bless those that curse me? Turn the other cheek? That’s just not in my nature. And God says, “I know it’s not. That’s part of the problem. You’ve got a sinful nature.” The solution isn’t to run from God, as if somehow that will make things better. The solution is to run to God, to run right into his will and if the reality of God’s will chokes the life out of your self centered, me oriented, sinful nature, well… all the better. The bible says it this way in Colossians 3, “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature.” Jonah was afraid of God’s kindness. What he didn’t count on was that God was too kind to let him go. Just when he thought he had outrun God, he ran right into Him. The longer you try to run from God, the longer the process will take. You may find yourself in a storm. You may find yourself in a boatload of trouble. But, Jonah 4 says that God is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." Our Father desires our attitudes to be in alignment with his attributes. The longer you run, the longer it takes. So let me encourage you, Whatever assignment God has placed before you don’t run from it, run to it. And let the transforming work of God's Spirit begin in you.<br />
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</span>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-41260166318115733962011-09-25T17:12:00.000-04:002011-09-25T17:12:28.300-04:00Dana Buchanan 1960 - 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERuy6-UrhOTVpwaFxOey3eKPiC6LdIK5fyL_oz8DZ4KnhoiWgxvl75ga-FrlYHJLFT60opygQE9aKzJ4UUGte5ozmVGxbTMk7bLl0GEk_MFHivGPuBvv3TDk5Oz6-0NoLRw3EH75ping/s1600/IMG_0607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERuy6-UrhOTVpwaFxOey3eKPiC6LdIK5fyL_oz8DZ4KnhoiWgxvl75ga-FrlYHJLFT60opygQE9aKzJ4UUGte5ozmVGxbTMk7bLl0GEk_MFHivGPuBvv3TDk5Oz6-0NoLRw3EH75ping/s320/IMG_0607.JPG" width="301" /></a></div><br />
THE REVEREND DANA E. BUCHANAN, 51, died on September 15, 2001, after a long battle with cancer. Dana was ordained a Deacon in the Diocese of Virginia in February. She was a faithful, valiant, and compassionate servant of God and God's people in the church and the world. There was a wonderful "Celebration of the Resurrection" for her at Saint James' Church in Leesburg, Virginia, on September 24, 2011. Dana had planned most of the details of her service over a year ago. Included was a piece she had written and had been set to music which was one of the Communion anthems:<br />
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<div align="center">"Embrace Us"</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">We are yours, be with us now and ever;</div><div style="text-align: left;">we take the cup, we take the bread this table offers.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Bitter sweet is the taste, love so deep your heart breaks;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Touch our souls, you long for us; tears we shed you wipe them dry.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Living God, draw us to thee, three yet one.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Make us servants dwell within, hear our prayer.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Your breath we feel, we take it in. Your Spirit come to us again.</div><div style="text-align: left;">At your feet we lay our sins; mercy flows, then life begins.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Silent conversation flows between us. Walk with us, live in us, remember.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anoint us, embrace us, fill our hearts with your love.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anoint us, embrace us, gift of love, gift of God's grace.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQ-v2nfZJic3rT4qhmqxJtv-Iux3HHtAVFfxKOykZ_8ErdFIPR9WOQweTNNADJTzrTQ3nPFoI5khT9WN5zcrdVRPchI02qXoMxO4iDizGieNPCJ3MtZZh4I94TyzxLNrt7-YBppI3Mwg/s1600/IMG_0506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQ-v2nfZJic3rT4qhmqxJtv-Iux3HHtAVFfxKOykZ_8ErdFIPR9WOQweTNNADJTzrTQ3nPFoI5khT9WN5zcrdVRPchI02qXoMxO4iDizGieNPCJ3MtZZh4I94TyzxLNrt7-YBppI3Mwg/s320/IMG_0506.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><em>Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints,</em></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><em>where sorrow and pain are no more,</em></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><em>neither sighing, but life everlasting.</em></strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697914146673706.post-9809697107168018602011-09-24T09:28:00.001-04:002011-09-24T09:30:42.957-04:00Kenneth Leech<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivsEniL6UBeyhct72mRmOrr9Zif6FS0MXg3-vUFE1IqDqmzGy8AWAJhbDptGkvXqd6pGVhZT4dIWFo6FRnE41_tyjoVO4up5Z4FdQylScqG2nAUwvP68Ldwmhxvmwfg3JSoUhoZ5XGCJ0/s1600/leech5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivsEniL6UBeyhct72mRmOrr9Zif6FS0MXg3-vUFE1IqDqmzGy8AWAJhbDptGkvXqd6pGVhZT4dIWFo6FRnE41_tyjoVO4up5Z4FdQylScqG2nAUwvP68Ldwmhxvmwfg3JSoUhoZ5XGCJ0/s1600/leech5.jpg" /></a>I have only recently become aware of a collection of Kenneth Leech's writings entitled, "Prayer and Prophecy: The Essential Kenneth Leech," edited [2009] by David Bunch and Angus Ritchie. This is a great collection for those who admire Leech's work and a helpful introduction to his teaching for those who have not read him.</div><br />
<div>Many of us were captured by him in his great book, "Soul Friend." He has over the years written other really good works on spirituality, prayer, theology, prophetic ministry, justice, and religious action in the public arena. As much as any contemporary writer, Leech has carefully and firmly made the connection between the inner life of prayer and contemplation and the vitally important place of the prophetic voice in contemporary Christianity, writing that these "are not two alternative ways of Christian witness: they are inseparable in a healthy Christian life, and history shows that where they are not held together, both decay."</div><br />
<div> The inner life of prayer and deep spirituality is the only genuine foundation for the active prophetic ministry to which we are called as the church and as individuals. Prayer and radical action are two sides of the same person of faith who longs for the wholeness and the well being of God's people, the proclamation of the Gospel; and for their own desire to continue on this marvelous, mystical journey towards the Holy.</div>Donald W. Krickbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13129756380307552466noreply@blogger.com0