I didn't have Bible Study Wednesday and I'm off from church this Sunday. That's nine days off!
I know I'm retired (my pension check came today) and only work on Sundays and Wednesdays, but 9 days seems like a long time off.
Not that I'm complaining. I have lots of stuff to do around Cheshire.
I'll go to Trinity on November 5 for Bible Study.
Truth is, I miss the people of Trinity. I like them a lot....
I woke up from a restful sleep into a nightmare.
The nightmare has a name--Donald J.
Not only is he wandering around Asia making fo-pas left and right, he's torn down the East Wing of the White House and is trying in many ways to tear down our democratic republic.
Lots of attention has been made by the reliable media that his mental skills are slipping.
What's not slipping is his commitment to do harm to any and all opponents.
It would be laughable if it weren't so terrible.
We have to stand up and speak out for what is right.
I only hope enough people will.
His poll numbers are encouraging that hope....
My least favorite day of the year is coming up--The End of Daylight Savings time.
We get an extra hour to sleep--but who does?
What the End of DST means is more darkness and the earth growing chill (at least in the northern hemisphere.)
And the only thing I dislike more than darkness is the cold.
Both at once makes me a little crazy.
We should have DST in the fall and winter--a bit more daylight.
But that's not how it works.
I hate that.
This Sunday I preached about 'The Gift of Humility'.
Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who go to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee brags about what a good man he is and compares himself to lesser folks--like the tax collector.
The tax collector bows his head, beats his breast and prays, "God have mercy on me a sinner."
Jesus tells the crowd that the tax collector is exalted because he humbled himself and the Pharisee is humbled because he exalted himself.
I tried to think of how I have been humble.
No luck there.
And bragging about being 'humble' isn't humility at all.
My thinking is that Humility is a gift from God when we confess our sins. Which in the Episcopal Eucharist we do before receiving communion.
I even talked about the Jesus Prayer.
It goes like this: (inhale) 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God...'
(exhale) 'Have mercy on me a sinner.'
You pray it in your head and heart, not out loud, and keep repeating it with each breath.
A visitor came up and told me he'd learned that prayer when he was in college and has used it for 40+ years.
That made my day....
That's the title of a book I haven't gotten hold of yet.
But I already know when Jesus became God.
I know it because of the Wednesday Bible study we have at Trinity.
We talked about the council of Nicea--where the Nicene Creed came into being and the Doctrine of the Trinity became part of the belief of the church.
Until 325 a.d. some Christians believed Jesus was 'chosen' by God to be the Savior. But the Council made clear that Jesus was 'begotten' by God, created from God's own being.
That's when Jesus became God.
If you haven't looked into the Council try it out on line. Wikipedia has a good recounting of it.
Very interesting stuff to dig around in.
Today at Bible Study, we didn't have an agenda.
They asked me to suggest something to discuss.
I had two questions. I told the folks there that they didn't have to answer out loud, I just wanted them to ponder the questions in their mind and heart.
Here are the questions.
*"What is 'faith'?"
*"What do you believe?"
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, but then they began sharing and it was remarkable.
The depth and meaning of their pondering was astonishing.
People said things they had never shared before.
We all left humbled, enlightened and deeply moved....
M.F. is the musician at Trinity, where I celebrate and preach.
I've been around the Episcopal Church for quite a while and I think he's the best musician I've ever worked with--and I've worked with some good ones. He could be in any church, yet he stays at our little one out in the boondocks!
He had surgery last week and missed this Sunday and the next.
It was weird to do the Eucharist with no music.
Brought me back to my 21 years at St. John's and the 8 a.m. services in the chapel.
At least I faced the congregation--in the chapel my back was to them because the altar was against a wall.
I miss him so.
Come back to us soon, M.....
Small crowd at church today. But a man who's been there three times now showed incredible generosity.
He works in quality control for a shipping company or a factory.
Most of things they check are bathroom products from shampoo and hand lotion to toilet paper and paper towels.
When a carton is opened to check the quality, they can't reseal it and send it to the stores.
Usually it's thrown out--but not this week.
He brought six huge boxes of such stuff and gave it to the church to go to the homeless shelter and soup kitchen.
He didn't pay for it--but he went to all the trouble of loading it, driving it to church and unloading it there.
Generosity to those who need it most is God's will.
He did God's will today.
So generous....
Bern and I went to the "No King" demonstration a few blocks from our house, in front of town hall on one side and the Congregational Church on the other.
I'm terrible about estimating crowds, but it could have been 2000--in a town this size that is amazing.
Lots of signs and shirts and chants.
I left early but Bern stayed till the end.
No speeches but lots of cars tooting support as they drove by the surging crowd.
If this was Cheshire I imagine the demonstrations around the country were monumental.
I hope so.
One sign said, "You should have seen it coming."
How true. But he was elected anyway.
Watch for whatever happens next....
I don't have to go to Diocesan Convention! Yea! Bishop Jeffery gave me permission to stay home. (That's of little interest to anyone but me....)
The president met with the leaders of Ukraine about more US missals. He told them no (and seemed to indicate he had asked Putin if he should....)
Lots of reporters (including from Fox News) gave up their permits to ask questions at the Pentagon since the former Fox News guy told them they couldn't ask questions about classified information...and some that was unclassified. Good for them! Don't give in.
Bern bought me a "No King in America" tee-shirt. Nationwide demonstrations are planned for tomorrow around that theme. People are standing up to the want-ta-be monarch in the White House.
I'm going to find the Cheshire gathering--there's going to be one--tomorrow.
Time to raise our voices for Democracy....
The Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of CT is October 24 and 25.
I wrote to the Bishops today to ask to be excused because of my continuing health problems.
We shall see. We shall see.
Yesterday at Bible Study at Trinity we spent an entire hour discussing the Trinity.
I'm amazed at the insights and questions people had.
An hour on the Trinity!
Quite a conversation.
I was delighted by it....
That's what Bern told me when I first saw her this morning.
I had no idea what she meant so she went on to tell me she'd been on her computer and nothing had changed.
I checked mine and found that the sky hadn't fallen on me either.
I got a comment yesterday from and old friend, M.M. telling me it would be 'just another day'.
So far the two of them are right.
There's an old saying I like--"I won't know until I know."
Tomorrow Microsoft goes to Windows 11.
I didn't get a new computer to receive the update.
Bern did all she could find out to minimize the change.
But I won't know until I know--tomorrow I'll know.
So, if you don't find anymore posts after today--you'll know that I know.
Not sure what I'll do.
I have to wait and see.
But tomorrow....Well you know what I was going to say!
We'll see.
It was supposed to storm, starting late morning, with winds that could cause power outages.
It's 4:12 p.m. and there is a drizzle of sorts--but no wind.
Maybe it will come later, but maybe not.
I'm expecting another kind of storm as well--one that hopefully will sweep the nation and drive back all the wrong-doing of the Trump administration.
I'm still waiting for that too.
Democrats, for the most part, seem to be in a power outage of ideas and actions.
But I'm waiting and hoping for that storm, if and when it comes.
I'll just wait and see about the weather.
Back on November 9, 1968 a letter from out-going President Lyndon Johnson to Tom and Dick Smothers, the musicians and comedians who had made lots of fun of Johnson in their songs and jokes.
The Letter read: "It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives."
Wow! A president thanking two men who satirized him!
Compare that to our current president's ire toward Jimmy Kimble and Stephen Colbert. And the lengths he has gone to silence them.
Wow! Some difference....
(Oh, by the way Richard Nixon saw to it that the Smothers brothers show was cancelled....)
{I got this from the Oct. 13, 2025 issue of THE NEW YORKER.}
I wrote my sermon today.
It's based on six words Jesus says according to Luke.
"Your faith has made you well."
He says that to a Samaritan leper that was healed.
But I hear him saying it to me and the folks at Trinity.
I am not well. I worry so much about the direction of our country that it is hard to focus on the good things of life.
I warn the folks that I'm going to be political and Episcopal priests are supposed to keep politics out of their sermons.
I tell them my bishops might be upset if they know I did this.
But I tell them it won't be the first time a bishop has yelled at me!!!!
Somehow my 'faith' and the 'works that come from faith' must help me do something about what's happening: soldiers in the streets, ICE arresting people without following legal rules, the loss of health care and financial assistance this administration has caused.
The 'works of faith' can make us and U.S. well.....
I pray so.
I don't worry much....
I'm usually quite calm.
But what the President is trying to do--become 'absolute ruler' of our country--troubles me a lot.
What to do makes me worry.
I'm going to get in contact with our Senators and Representatives from CT. But they are all Democrats and already agree with me.
I certainly pray about it--but God hasn't stepped in yet to stop the trumpism.
But 'action' is better than 'worry'.
I only hope enough people agree with me.
I hope we can pull this off.
In the store today, getting a six pack of ginger ale, I asked the woman in front of me if I could go before her. She graciously agreed.
So, I did.
I wave people into traffic and don't care if they wave in thanks.
When I'm waved into traffic, I always wave in thanks.
Looking out for each other may be how we should live in these trumpian days.
That's what we need to do, all the time.
Look out for each other.
Maybe the world will catch on.
I hope and pray....
I went to the dentist today.
She is a tiny woman whose ancestors are from India.
She replaced a filling in a front tooth.
My lips were numb for at least two hours.
Strange things to have--numb lips are one of them.
When the feeling came back I discovered a lot of food behind my lips.
Strange indeed.
A couple of blocks from our house there is a house that out front has two huge signs.
NO KING IN THE UNITED STATES
NO KING IN THE UNITED STATES
Given Trump's using national guard and even troops (not to mention ICE) against Americans leans toward what a monarch would do.
We all need a sign in our yards and on our hearts:
NO KING IN THE UNITED STATES
Amen.
Another thing I don't like about winter--besides the cold and the snow--is the dark.
A month ago it would still have been daylight out--but tonight at 6:45, as I'm writing this--it is pitch dark.
I'm a sunshine kind of guy.
I'm a warm weather kind of boy.
I love the light--but not the dark.
Daylight savings time ends soon--so, another hour of darkness.
Maybe I should live on the equator.
After a bunch of warm days, today was chilly.
But so was the national government--it shut down!
Lots of chaos will ensue, depending on how long it lasts.
But the key is trumper and the GOP aren't being 'grand'. They could have made a deal with the Dems if they would only restore the millions and billions of dollars they took away from health care for so many Americans.
But they wouldn't. They turned a 'chilly shoulder' to that and the US government stopped.
They care more about the wealthy than about normal--never mind 'poor'--people.
A chilly day for us all.
Today in Bible Study we talked about the Council of Nicea held in 325 a.d.
There were lots of interesting things in the discussion.
*Nicea confirmed that Jesus was God, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (Many believed he was a 'creation' of God and not God at that time.)
*The date of Easter was established.
*And there were many rules. The first was "clergy cannot self-castrate".
And neither should you....
