Wierdness continues

Tomorrow is Easter.

I don't know when I didn't go to a church on Easter. I'm sure there was a year or two, but I can't, for the life of me remember when.

We're doing a zoom/face book Easter service because one of the members of the Cluster churches, Ted, knows how to do it.

Very odd. But better than nothing. I'll get to see faces I haven't seen for a month and get to tell them how much I miss them and love them.

We'll have organ music and a solo and I'll bless bread and wine for anyone who has it before their screens or phones. Who knows if it will be 'consecrated'? But it will be a virtual sharing of bread and wine.

We have a zoom call set up with our children and their spouses and children for 3 tomorrow.

Mimi texted Bern that she's didn't remember an Easter when she wasn't here. I'm sure there have been a few, but like me and church, Mimi can't remember.

Easter is about Resurrection, which we all need in these Covid-19 days.

We need to know we can be full of life though cut off from the world in a way we've never known before. We need to know we can be safe and be 'alive' at the same time.

The on screen service tomorrow will begin with the affirmation, "Alleluia, Christ is Risen" and the response, "The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia."

Say that when you wake up on Easter.

Say it and know Life conquers Death and courage conquers fear, and safety conquers danger.

We are risen too, tomorrow.

Truly. Truly.

Holy Saturday

Read Matthew's gospel   27.57-66

Holy Saturday is the most solemn day of the year.'

It is as if the church is dead and in the tomb with Jesus.

Holy Eucharist cannot be celebrated and the bread and wine consecrated on Maundy Thursday must be totally consumed.. Not even reserved sacrament can be shared this day.

The liturgy for the day is contained on page 283 of the Book of Common Prayer. One page only.
And instead of the Prayers of the People we say the Anthem "In the midst of life", which is part of the Burial Office.

No blessing is given by the priest on this day.

Liturgically it is a day of solemnity and silence.

It is a day to 'be still and know.' that tomorrow will be a very different day....

Another gift of the virus

I got an email and then a call from M and V M--people I haven't seen for over 30 years.

They live in New Orleans and M survived Covid 19 and is fine. V is fine too, so far as they know in that epi-center of disease, not infected.

They are still staunch Episcopalians, as they were when I was their parish priest so many years ago.

M is on the vestry of his church and at least 7 members have died from the virus.

Mimi was older than their daughter but played with her a lot.

They had a son after they left CT and he lives in New Orleans with a child and wife. There daughter lives in Richmond with her husband, son and daughter.

What a hoot to hear from them!

Another gift of the virus, to hear from people from long ago....

Good Friday

Read John's Gospel 18.1-19.42

Whew! That was a lot to read. And painful to read as well.

Why do we call it GOOD FRIDAY when so much bad happens?

Christ dies, painfully, in agony on the cross. For the only time in John's gospel Jesus shows some humanity when he says, "I thirst". Then his side is pierced and he is laid into a tomb.

And before that Peter denies him three times. Pilate has him flogged and turns him over to be crucified. What is "good" about that?

I preached a sermon years ago on the feast of Christ the King, but it mentions Good Friday. I want to share that with you today.

CHRIST THE KING

          Here we are, on the Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent, poised on the edge of preparing ourselves to receive the Christ Child into our hearts, and what is the reading we get? Something from Luke about Good Friday….Something about the crucifixion.

          A little jarring and ‘out of time’, it seems to me.

          I’m reminded of how the Council of Churches—which became the Interfaith Ministry—used to have a Good Friday service here at St. John’s.

The service was “The Seven Last Words of Christ” combined with our Book of Common Prayer Good Friday Service. There were always 7 sermons—talk about a way to make Good Friday dismal and BAD!!!—and I was in charge of making sure the whole thing fit into the hours between noon and 3 p.m.

          Dealing with 7 preachers and a set-in-stone time frame was always an adventure! Preachers, by-in-large, don’t like to be given limits but I would limit them to no more than 7 minutes for their sermons, knowing full well most would go past 10 or 12. I’d built in enough silence to manage that. But the last one of those we had, the preacher on the 6^th word had gone on for almost 15 minutes about the crucifixion, when he said: “Now let us go back to Bethlehem….”

          “Oh no!” I said to myself, with expletives deleted, “we’re going in the wrong direction!”

          That’s rather how I feel today. We’re preparing to embark on the journey to Bethlehem and Luke has jerked us to Golgotha and the conversation between Jesus and two other dying men.

Since it is what we are given by the Lectionary, it is what we will attend to—Jesus talking with the two thieves.

          What is interesting about the exchange, in my mind, is this: the first thief parroted the slurs of the crowds and jeeringly called on Jesus to save himself—and to save the two other condemned men as well. Not only did that first thief by into the “conventional wisdom” of the leaders of his day, he was thinking of ‘himself’ above all. “Save yourself and US!”

          The second thief had another view of the situation. “We have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds,” he tells the other man. “But this man has done nothing wrong….”

          The second thief is not thinking of ‘himself’. In fact, he has a realistic understanding that, for him, ‘the punishment fits the crime’. Instead, that second thief, bleeding and dying, is thinking of the one beside him, who is innocent in his mind.

         

          That is a place well worthy to begin Advent—thinking of the one beside you, the ones around you, those even far away…instead of thinking of yourself.

          That could be recommended for all of us as a way to prepare our hearts for the visit of the Child of Bethlehem.

         

          But the conversation is not yet over. The second thief has one more thing to say to Jesus.

          “Jesus,” he says, life slipping away from him, “remember me when you come into your Kingdom….”

         

          That is certainly a second recommendation for all of us as a way to prepare our hearts for the visit of the Christ Child.

          REMEMBER ME….REMEMBER ME….REMEMBER ME….

          Memory is one of the most precious gifts God gives us. Memory is our anchor in the angry sea, our Rock in the storm, our Hope in the times of Trouble. Memory ties us to our identity—to WHO we are and WHOSE we are as we continue our journey.

          WHO we are and WHOSE we are is clear. We are the children of God, and as we move through the shadows and darkness of Lent we should pray God to “remember us”. And God will….

          “Truly I tell you,” Jesus tells the thief, “today you will be with me in Paradise..”

      

       There’s a third recommendation to us in today’s readings as we verge on the preparation of Advent. It comes from the Psalm of the day—Psalm 46, my favorite Psalm of all. After that Psalm tells us that we need not fear the changes and chances of life, the song reminds us of this: Listen—“BE STILL, THEN, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD….”

          Next Sunday, Advent begins—one of the great and wondrous seasons of the Church’s year. And today we are given advice on how to prepare to prepare our hearts and lives to receive the gift of God at Christmas.

          It’s not hard. It’s not rocket science or heart surgery. It is, in fact, as simple as ABC.

          Think of others, not yourself.

      Pray to God to ‘remember’ you.

      Be still…find time to be still…and in that you will know God.

          That’s the advice I’ll seek to follow.

          I invite you to do the same.

 

Bernie is out

I was all in with Bernie Sanders. In fact, he may be more conservative than me.

But he is suspending his campaign, meaning Joe Biden will be the nominee.

Biden needs to name his female running mate and his whole cabinet (including progressives and Republicans--a unity cabinet) before the election.

Joe knows how to delegate and how to let the experts and the science people be in charge.

Go, Joe!

I'm with you all the way.

the moon, the moon

The moon is full and beautiful tonight. Thought I'd share a poem.

So Cold the Moon

I went out on our back porch,

which faces East,

and the wood creaked from the cold.

My teeth got cold,

smoking a cigarette.

It's almost too cold to smoke,

but not just yet.

Smoke in my mouth and smoke

from our neighbor's chimney

in front of the moon and Venus,

just below.

The moon is so full tonight,

through the smoke,

and so cold.

I used to hate the chill,

but no more.

Something clear and silent

about the cold

gives me a quiet joy.

Something pure and crystalline

about such cold.

Something smoky and dark,

and something in the moon,

so high, so frozen, so alone.

Except for Venus, just below.

To the East from my back porch.

And smoke—across the moon

and in my mouth,

with my chill teeth.

Jgb

Epiphany 2015

another gift of the virus

All around the world, air pollution is at its lowest level in years!

The economic issues of the virus are cleaning the air.

Maybe another positive thing about this pandemic is that we could realize we could take the pressure off the environment.

Those who move us forward to rebuild the economy could do it in a way that honors 'this fragile earth, our island.'

To be seen.

Continue to support those who are standing between us and total disaster: medical workers, ambulance drivers, police and fire, and those who work in grocery stores and service stations.

Wash your hands and stay well.