On Sunday night I had a dream (don't remember the details) in which my right thigh got hurt somehow.
Monday morning I woke up and my right thigh hurt like something crazy.
Can a dream injury come into real life?
I would never had believed that.
But even with pain killers and 'Icy Hot' ointment, my thigh still hurts.
Weird, huh?
Go figure.
This is the sermon I preached at the funeral of Lee Howard at St. Paul's in New Haven, long after I left there.
On September 2, I will do the funeral of Hanna, Lee's divorced wife, but though divorced, she was in his choir.
Amazing.
Lee’s Sermon (September 3, 2016) St. Paul’s/St. James, New Haven
I chose the gospel today—the discussion between Thomas and Jesus about where Jesus is going and how the disciples know where he is going—because of all the Biblical characters, Lee reminded me most of Thomas. Lee, like Thomas, would be the one raising his hand and saying, “Hold on, Jesus! We don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Lee was a Thomas kind of guy….
A sense of urgency.
That’s what I remember from my first ever encounter with Lee Howard—a sense of urgency.
Since he was a Southerner, I had expected him to be slow moving, slow talking, laid back. But not Lee….
Whenever I was in his presence, I felt a ‘buzz’, a kinetic energy. Eating lunch with him in his apartment, which I often did, I would feel like I was in a bubble while Lee was in motion, talking non-stop, having more to say than time to say it, bringing out plates and glasses, food and drink from the jumble of his living space. Urgency.
Until the last years of his life, when thoughts and speech and movement slowed down on him—until then there was this…”urgency” about him.
But now that I think about it, maybe the right word is “passion”. That’s more accurate I think. My experience of Lee was on his ‘passion’—for music, for people, for ideas, for life.
That sounds right. The Lee Howard I knew was a person of ‘passion’.
I would watch him work with the choir. It was like he was juggling one more ball than he should have been but he kept them all going through his strength of will.
I know he was passionate about music…no question there.
And he was also passionate about people—about his family, his children, his friends, his fellow musicians, his ex-wife.
In my 41 years of ordained ministry I’ve seen lots of divorces. And in my experience, one of the things involved in the divorce agreement—besides money and property—was ‘the church’.
In every divorce I’ve known about, one of the couple got “the church”.
Not so for Lee and Hanne.
I’ve thought about that a lot over the years. How both of them held on to St. Paul’s. I don’t imagine I’ll ever figure it out, but it gives me hope.
Lee was passionate about his children. Helen, Lee Jay and John came up in most every conversation we ever had—even if we were supposedly talking about the music for Lent!
It has been a couple of decades or more since I had a close relationship with Lee. We were on different journeys. But we did share the road for over 5 years. And when I look back on that time, what I remember about Lee was his ‘passion’.
Lee’s journey is over now. But I know his passion lives on in those he loved. And his passion lives on in the music we hear this day, played in his honor.
The words of the Burial Office and the Eucharist are full of hope and life and possibility. I give thanks for that. And the priest, at a funeral, wears white—the color of Easter, not the color of mourning. We Christians are called to believe that Death is not ‘the last word’. Death is the ‘penultimate’ word (I believe Lee would appreciate having “penultimate” being part of his funeral sermon! He had a passion for words). The LAST WORD we say today in prayer and music and liturgy is HOPE and PROMISE and LIFE.
St. Francis of Assisi once wrote, “Death is not a door that closes, but a door that opens and we walk in all new”.
That is our hope and prayer for Lee this day. Even though Death seems to be a closed door that keeps us from those we love—our prayer and hope for Lee is that the door of Death opened and he walked in ‘all new’ into the presence of the One who loved him best of all. All new. All new. All new and full of passion.
Amen.
We finished our examination of the Book of Common Prayer.
Lots of stuff people weren't familiar with.
But a big crowd since it is part of the confirmation class.
Lots of people at Trinity haven't been confirmed.
That's probably since they have not had a priest for a while.
But they are interested and ready.
I feel humbled and proud to take them through it.
Humbled and proud.
Last two nights, I've slept like a log until 9 a.m.
Turned on the air conditioner in my office this afternoon for a spell, but then it got cool.
Sat on the deck with cool breeze from the south.
The former President gets deeper and deeper in the do-do!
Jack Smith is coming at him from two directions and New York and Georgia have a lot to say.
Yet he is leading in the polls for President for Republicans and is close to Biden in the race.
Who can support someone so bad?
Bad people?
I've heard MAGA people interviewed.
What a mess they are and what a mess we're in....
The Friday rainstorm never came, I don't know why. The weather folks, like all of us get things wrong sometimes.
That would be a good motto for life: "I get things wrong sometimes."
Last night I couldn't get to sleep. Don't think I did until nearly 3 a.m. A little congestion didn't help, but mostly it was the weather.
We haven't used air conditioning for several days--pretty weird for August!
Last night the window was open and a fan on.
I would get cold (cold in August!) and cover up and get too warm and uncover and get too cold again.
That went on for several hours.
When I finally slept I had very strange and a tad disturbing dreams.]
I don't remember them now but know they were strange and disturbing.
And I got up at 7:45 to go to Milton for church.
Then in the service I had to miss the recessional hymn to go to the bathroom so I didn't poop my vestments!
Luckily I made it.
A strange few days, but church was great....
It's supposed to rain a lot tonight.
We're still waiting.
It's been cloudy all day, so every time I leave the back deck after reading for a while, I bring the cushions from my deck chair back to the porch.
Bern is talking to our granddaughter, Eleanor, who lives with our daughter and son-in-law in upstate New York, and they've had one storm already.
But we're still waiting.
I take Brigit out to pee at 8:30 or 9 p.m. and she hates the rain. Hopefully there will be a break long enough for us to go out.
But we're still waiting.
THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION 2023
Today, as you have doubtless figured out, is the Feast of the Transfiguration.
We celebrate both Jesus transfiguration and Moses’ as well.
You can’t be around God without being changed in some wondrous ways.
Before writing this sermon, I looked up ‘transfigure’ in the dictionary. Here’s what Merriam-Webster told me:
“Transfigure=transform, metamorphose, transmute, convert, transmogrify. Transfigure means to change a thing into a different thing. Transform implies a major change in form, nature or function. Metamorphose suggests an abrupt or startling change indeed if by magic or supernatural power.
To give a new and typically exalted or spiritual appearance: transform outwardly and usually for the better.
Transfigure has 33 synonyms.”
That’s more than I needed to know!
After God gave Moses the 10 Commandants, Moses’ face was shining so much that the leaders didn’t want to look at him or be with him. He had to cover his face with a veil most of the time.
Jesus’ transfiguration was more than just his face appearance—though that did change. His clothes turned ‘dazzling white’ and two men were with him—Moses and Elijah, the disciples thought.
Peter wanted to put up a structure to commemorate the moment, but a cloud descended on them and they were ‘terrified.
Then God’s voice spoke to them and called Jesus “my son, my Chosen” and told them to listen to him.
Luke tells us the disciples ‘kept silent and told no one any of the things they had seen.’
That may have been true in those days, but the lesson from 2nd Peter today is Peter writing about the day of Transfiguration. He gets God’s words a little different from Luke but it had been years and, I don’t know about you, but my memory doesn’t serve to get past events right!
So, the question to ponder is this—What Transfiguration does God have in mind for you? How does God want to transform you?
The churches I grew up in—first the Pilgram Holiness and then a Methodist church that was more evangelical than those in New England—they had an answer: God wants to save your soul!
I may have told you this: When I was in the 9th grade, I went to a Methodist revival meeting and the preacher scared me so bad I went up to the altar rail and he laid hands on me and told me I was ‘saved’.
The next Monday in math class, the teacher, who was my father’s sister-in-law, told the class, “Jimmy was saved this weekend.” I was so embarrassed I dropped my pencil and when I bent down to pick it up, I looked up Donna Comber’s dress.
“Oh, no,” I thought, “it didn’t take!”
Episcopalians look at it differently. God wants us to do God’s work in this world—clothe the naked, feed the hungry, help to poor, welcome the friendless and don’t look down on anyone.
You folks at Trinity do a good job of all that.
But ponder for a moment what else God might want from
You folks at Trinity do all that and more, but ponder for a few moments what else your transfiguration might involve.
Ponder being transfigured….
Amen and amen.
