Some quotes to ponder....

 (Thanks to the Mastery Foundation for the quotes.)

"Outside noisy, inside empty."--Chinese Proverb

"Listen to Mustn'ts, child, listen to the Don'ts./ Listen to the Shouldn'ts, the Impossibles, the Won'ts./ Listen to the Never Haves, then listen close to me./Anything can happen, child, Anything can be."  --Shel Silverstein

"Where there is great love there are always miracles."--Willa Cather

"No man achieves immortality through public acclaim."--Bob Dylan

"God, if you'll forgive my little jokes on Thee,/ I'll forgive your one big joke on me."--Robert Frost

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger."--Mark Twain

"Everybody wants to be on a championship team and nobody wants to practice."--Bobby Knight

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal."--Hanna Moore

"What history hides is the terror of the unforeseen."--Phillip Roth

"If you want to keep something a secret, don't do it."--Chinese proverb

"Of what you see, believe very little, of what you are told, nothing."--Spanish proverb

"The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things."--Hans Christian Anderson

"The future you see is the future you get."--Robert G. Allen

"The truth dazzles gradually,/or else the world would be blind."--Emily Dickinson

PONDER ON, MY FRIENDS....

Last day of a hard month

 January was a hard month this year.

Quite a bit of snow and biting cold.

But tonight, at mid-night, it will be over.

And February is promising to come in like a lamb.

It's supposed to be in the 40's on Wednesday and moderate most of this coming week.

I only hope it lasts.

My son, daughter-in-law and three grand-daughters got Covid this month. They were all fully vaccinated and have no troubling symptoms. But they're isolating at home.

Probably got it through someone on the basketball court with Morgan and Emma. Who knows.

Speaking of Cathy, my daughter-in-law, Dr. Wong, my urologist, who looks a lot like Cathy, put a camera in me to look at my bladder. No problems except my embarrassment. 

Trinity Church, where I serve, cancelled three of it's Sundays in January. So, I missed church.

I also had to take my car in for a service to prevent my engine from catching on fire.

Not a comforting thought.

So, all in all, I'm glad this month is almost over....

No Church Tomorrow

 I'm sorry, but relieved.

Our driveway in under more than a foot of snow and it's dark.

Cornwall Avenue was scraped earlier, but before the snow stopped.

Who knows how I-84 and RT. 8 are?

So, I can sleep in and not worry about driving to Milton in this weather.

It usually takes me under half-an-hour but in these conditions, who knows how long it would take?

And by mid-week it will be in the 40 to 50 degree range, so, I'll go up on Wednesday as I try to do.

Lordy, Lordy, I don't like winter.

snow

Although I don't always trust weather forecasters (I told a woman in line at Big Y today--it was very crowded--that I trust them 50% of the time, she told me, "you're being very generous") lots of snow is in the realm of possibility.

I don't know if Trinity will cancel church--I hope not--but it is a possibility since the biggest snow is in the East.

Snow looses it wonder after Christmas.

No one sings, "I dreaming of a white January 30...".

We'll see what happened tonight and tomorrow.

I'm ready for spring already.

Wishful thinking.

I know.

 

 

Black lives matter (too)

That should have been the slogan the Black and Brown people used.

That would have made "All Lives Matter" make no sense.

Why are so many white people afraid of minorities?

Because whites will be in a minority in 30 or 40 years?

Because white folks think the tables will be turned and they'll be discriminated against by black/brown/yellow/red people?

Look at South Africa. When the black majority took over things were better for ALL people.

If the slogan had been Black Lives Matter Too, shouting All Lives Matter wouldn't have been possible.

I spent my full time ministry for 5 years in a vastly Black Church, for 5 years in a church that was a third Black and 21 years in a congregation that was more than a third black and West Indian and with a congregation that was Hispanic that was over 100 people.

I trust people of color more than I trust white people.

They have experienced ridiculous discrimination an would not inflict it on others because they know how it feels.

So, back off on ALL LIVES MATTER, unless you are including people of color equally in that statement.

They matter too.

 

This week's sermon

Love is all we have—January 30, 2022

          I don’t always title sermons, and even if I do, I don’t always share the title with the congregation.

          But I did title this sermon and want to share that title with you.

          This sermon is called “Love Is All We Have”.

          I get it from an Emily Dickinson poem of the same name. The poem is very short.

          Here it is:

“Love is all we have/Is all we know of love/ It is enough, the freight/ should be proportioned to the groove.”

Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is the total definition of love.

Listen to pieces of 1^st Corinthians 13:

“If I have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal….if I do not have love, I am nothing….If I do not have love, I gain nothing….For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now Faith, Hope and Love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is Love.”

Love is greater than Faith.

Love is greater than Hope.

          “Love is all we have….”

          English is a simpler language than Greek. Take it from someone who studied Greek for two years at Harvard Divinity School!

          For one thing, translating Greek into English is sometimes difficult.

          For example, there are three totally different words in Greek that are all translated as ‘love’ in English.

          The first is EROS.

          You probably already figured out that is the root word of ‘erotic’. EROS love is romantic love. The love of passions.

          The second word is PHILIOS.

          It is the root word of ‘Philadelphia’—the city of brotherly and sisterly love. PHILIOS is the love we feel for family and friends.

          The final Greek word we translate into English as ‘love’ is AGAPE.

          AGAPE literally means ‘the love that gives itself away’. It is the ‘love’ of God for us and all creation. It is the ‘love’ of Jesus who literally ‘loved’ us by giving up his life. It is the ‘love’ that says, ‘I will die to keep you safe’.

          Not surprisingly, the Greek word translated as ‘love’ in Paul’s letter, is AGAPE.

          AGAPE is stronger than Faith.

          AGAPE is stronger than Hope.

          AGAPE is Faith and Hope put into action.

          You are welcome to have EROS and PHILIOS in your life. More power to you.

          But we are called by Paul, by Jesus, by God, to feel AGAPE love for all the world.

          We are called to ‘give ourselves away’ to fight global warming, to champion those in need, to work for peace here in Litchfield and around the world, to give voice to the voiceless, to work for social justice and equality, to love everyone—even our enemies and those who wish us harm.

          Love is all we have to offer to God and to the world.

          “Love is all we have/Is all we know of love/It is enough, the freight/should be proportioned to the groove.”

Amen and amen.

 

 

Top 10 reasons for Being an Episcopalian

 I was sure I posted this before, but couldn't find it when I searched my blog.

I have a red tee-shirt with the Episcopal shield on the upper left side in front and the Top 10 (by Robin Williams, who was an Episcopalian) on the back.

I got it, I suspect, at the National Cathedral, which is the only place it seemed to be available.

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female, God created them; male and female, we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry, none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized,

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

All true!