One of my own

Katherine Johnson died yesterday. She was 101. She was born in White Sulphur Springs, WV, 2 hours from where I grew up but only 40 minutes from where my father grew up.

She was a black woman who taught school, raised a family and went back to school and worked for NASA. A movie has been made about her called "Hidden Figures".

She did the math and computer work for the space flights our country made.

A black woman from West Virginia who was one of the first people of color in the graduate schools of West Virginia University, where I got my B.A. in English and Political Science,

I never went to school with Black students until my senior year of high school (1965) when Gary District High sent over two very smart girls and three talented boy football players to begin the integration that would mean the merging of the two schools the next year.

Yet, I feel a connection to Katherine Johnson, A West Virginian who 'got above her 'rasin' and became famous.

A good and very long life doing much good.

Bless you, Katherine. We will miss you.

My sermon today

TRANSFIGURATION

          JUST BEFORE THE LONG, LENTEN SOJOURN IN THE DESERT, WE GO WITH JESUS TO THE MOUNTAINTOP.

          IN THE BIBLE, GOD DWELLS ON MOUNTAINTOPS.

          MOSES MET GOD TO THE TOP OF MOUNT SIANAI TO RECEIVE THE LAW AND HIS FACE SHOWN WITH SUCH RADIENCE NO ONE COULD LOOK ON ITS BRIGHTNESS.

          JESUS WENT TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP AND WAS TRANSFIGURED AS HE SPOKE WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH. JESUS’ VERY BEING WAS RADIENT AND BRIGHT.

          AT THE TRANSFIGURATION, PETER SUGGESTED THEY BUILD MONUMENTS AND STAY ON THE MOUNTAINTOP. AT THAT MOMENT THE CLOUD OF HOLINESS SURROUNDED THEM AND THEY WERE TERRIFIED.

          FOR ME—PERHAPS FOR YOU—I FIND MYSELF IN THE ‘CLOUD’ MORE OFTEN THAN ON THE MOUNTAINTOP.

          I FIND MYSELF IN THE ‘CLOUD’ OF CONFUSION AND THE ‘CLOUD’ OF DOUBT AND THE ‘CLOUD’ OF FEAR MORE OFTEN THAN I FIND MYSELF ON THE MOUNTAINTOP WITH GOD.

          BUT IT IS VITAL AND IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT GOD SPOKE TO THE DISCIPLES FROM THE CLOUD. THE ‘CLOUDS’ OF LIFE ARE THE DWELLING PLACES OF GOD.

          WE MAY MEET GOD ON THE MOUNTAINTOPS OF LIFE. BUT IF YOU ARE ANYTHING LIKE ME, THERE ARE A LOT MORE CLOUDS THAN MOUNTAINTOPS.

          AND GOD IS THERE AS WELL. GOD IS IN THE CLOUDS AS WELL AS ON THE MOUNTAINTOPS. OUR ‘CALL’ IS TO SEE AND HEAR GOD WHEN THINGS GET CLOUDY AND OBSCURE.

          “WE CANNOT STAY HERE,” JESUS TOLD PETER. IT IS NO DIFFERENT FOR US.

          THE WORK WE HAVE TO DO IS ‘DOWN IN THE VALLEY’, WHERE THE PEOPLE LIVE. WE CANNOT STAY ON THE MOUNTAINTOPS OF LIFE.

          —I PRAY WE WILL EXPERIENCE SOME MOUNTAINTOPS WITH GOD.

          BUT EVEN MORE THAN THAT, I PRAY WE WILL LISTEN WITH OUR HEARTS FOR THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE CLOUDS OF LIFE. I PRAY WE WILL KNOW THAT GOD IS WITH US IN THE VALLEYS AND IN THE DARKNESS.

          AND MY GREATEST PRAYER IS THAT YOU WILL CONTINUE THE WORK GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO DO—TO BE CHRIST’S BODY IN THE CONFUSION AND FEAR AND PAIN OF THIS WORLD.

          YOUR ‘WORK’—YOUR MINISTRY AND MISSION—IS ‘ON THE GROUND’ AND IN THE LOW PLACES. YOUR MINISTRY AND MISSION IS IN THE CLOUDY PLACES.

          THERE YOU WILL SERVE GOD.

          THERE YOU WILL FIND GOD AND BE TRANSFIGURED.

          THERE…IN THE CLOUDS OF LIFE…GOD WILL FIND YOU AND WILL LEAD YOU WITH HOLINESS AND LOVE….

Feel the Bern

Sanders has won Nevada by a lot. And put his and Warren's votes together and they are almost 60%.

Don't tell me the Left can't win this election.

Everything the President has done in 3 years +, has energized the left.

And so many people say, "anyone but Him!"

Bernie can win.

And I can't wait to hear the debates. Though the President may decide not to debate Bernie because he can't intimidate or mock him. Bernie can out do him big time.

So, come on folks, 'feel the Bern!!!"

I really believe he can do this.

Let's pray so....

my new obsession

I have a new writer that I am obsessed with--Julia Keller. She is a Pulitzer award winning journalist with the Chicago Tribune and grew up near Huntington, West Virginia. Her heroine is a county prosecutor in a fictional county in Southern West Virginia.

I'm on her sixth novel tonight and will finish it tomorrow.

One of the things that comes up over and over is those 'who got away'--people who escaped West Virginia and its poverty and drug abuse.

Some of them come back. Some of them don't come back but consider themselves 'West Virginians' none the less. And some of them escape and forget where they came from.

Bern won't read the books though they are wonderful, because she is one of the last group who got away and don't want to be reminded of where they came from. I am in the second group.

I even said to St. Andrew's when Bryan Spinks, an English priest, and I were going to shift assignments the next Sunday so I could be at a meeting at another church: "next week you will have a refined English gentleman instead of a scruffy Appalachian from West Virginia."

Belfa Elkins (yes, 'Belfa') is the main character and she is of the first group--the ones that left and came back. She divorced her wildly successful husband, one of the third group, who she met in high school and moved away from Washington, DC, back to Acker's Gap (also fictional) with her daughter and with her Georgetown Law School diploma and got elected prosecuting attorney.

The books are so well written, so thoughtful, so deep and so tortured.

They depict West Virginia so accurately and truly.

I love them.

Keep writing Julia--I only have three more to read. Write fast.

I was too tired

OK, I was too tired after last night's Democratic Debate to write anything. I have my strength back now.

Bloomberg got destroyed by Elizabeth Warren. She ran him up one side and down the other. Good for her. She had a good night. Michael was pitiful.

Mayor Pete did himself no favors by taking on Klobuchar so hard. It seemed too personal. I know he needs her voters but he seemed, for the first time, like a bully.

Biden did not embarrass himself, which was good for him.

But, I must admit, I feel the Bern!

I loved him 4 years ago and love him still.

People say he can't win because of the 'socialist' label.

But get this: Social Security and Medicare and Mecicaid are already 'socialist' programs--and who is against them?

Plus, younger voters don't fear 'socialism' and Bernie will bring them out in record numbers.

I consider myself a Democratic Socialist, so I admire him greatly.

Finally, what I fear most is The President (who I will not name) will bully any candidate on the debate stage. Imagine trying to bully Bernie!

I'd go for Bernie/Amy or Bernie/Tom Steyer. He'll only serve one term and those two are young enough and clued in enough to work. My favorite ticket would be Bernie/Yang--just to see Mile Pence on a stage with Andrew!!!

This has to work. We have to win.

Just today the president put someone with no experience in intellegance in charge of the National Intellegance Department.

This all must stop through the November election. Plus, turn the Senate Democratic!!!

OK, I guess I have two Absolute Rules

I found myself in a conversation today about 'who would you marry or baptize?'

Everyone in the room, I imagined, though I don't take a poll, would do the funeral of anyone who wanted to be buried from their church.

I realized that I would baptize, marry or bury ANYONE who wanted it.

(A piece of droll Episcopal priest humor: baptize, marry and bury are referred to as "Hatch, Match and Dispatch" behind closed doors.)

I've baptized babies who would not grow up in the church and married couples that would never darken the church door again and buried people who would be in church for the first time on the day of their funeral.

My belief is that having God in your life, if only for that one time, is better than never having God in your life. Just me talking, you understand.

Some priests have a different view, and I can understand their position. It's just not mine.

And their are side effects. I require baptismal and marriage counseling and sometimes that plants a seed I didn't even know was planted.

In my 21 years at St. John's in Waterbury, I have many examples of how the seed that was planted came to bloom.

But the most startling was a couple I married years and years ago who weren't members. They were both ex-Roman Catholics and not welcomed to marry in the churches they had attended as kids. But I officiated at their marriage. And then, though they still hadn't joined St. John's, I baptized their son. They still didn't attend, but when the son was Sunday School age, they started coming. Eventually they served on altar guild, vestry and as a musician for the 8 a.m. service. And their son was confirmed. And they kept coming.

Planted seeds that I was around long enough to admire the blooms.

And I could tell you about dozens of people who came to a funeral at St. John's and, being un-churched, started attending.

I will Hatch, Match and Dispatch anyone.

Planting seeds as I do so.

Letting God be involved in someone's life often makes a big difference.

An absolute rule

I'm not a guy much given to 'rules'. (Ask any bishop I've ever served!)

Not that all rules are bad--it's just they tend to get in the way.

But in my ministry, I've learned the hard way that I have one absolute rule. NEVER ACT ON SECOND HAND INFORMATION.

A member of one of the three churches I serve told me I should talk to another member who they thought was very 'down'.

I had to tell the person suggesting that to me that it's against my 'absolute rule'.

I didn't have this rule when I first started out. If someone in my first church had made that suggestion I would have immediately sought out the 'very down' parishioner....And all hell would break loose!

The person I approached would say they were 'absolutely fine' and ask who had told me they weren't. If I told them who that was, then they would be furious with two people.

I never approach anyone in a pastoral way until they approach me.

Of course, I visit the sick and bereaved, but even then, I just listen and only act if they ask me to.

Second hand information in a church is a time-bomb. Better to leave them be until the person, themselves, approaches me to talk.

In life, most 'down' times lift of their own accord. And if they don't, the person who is 'down' has to reach out for help. You can't reach out for them. If you do, the bomb will go off....