We had 9 people at Bible Study today--a record!
That's a lot for a parish that gets 15-25 on Sundays.
We're nearing the end of the Gospel of John and the discussions have been spirited, inter-active and inspiring.
I told them today we'd read Acts next--though I kind of dread it.
Lots of Acts looses me.
But with this group it should be fun and informative.
Bern and I went to an afternoon picnic at a good friend's house.
It was a great crowd and wondrous food.
But before all that, I fell down.
My knees make stairs difficult--especially going up.
I went down to the porch to get some wine (first glass, so that didn't make me fall.
There are five stone steps from the porch to the back yard with nothing to hold on to.
The fourth step got me and I sprawled on the walk and some gravel, spilling my wine.
Bern came--put a bandage on my bloody elbow and helped me up.
It was more embarrassing than painful.
I should take my cane when I go out.
I'm preaching and celebrating at St. Peter's, Cheshire, tomorrow.
It's two blocks or so from our house.
I've been in the building several times but have never officiated there. They are between Rectors and need Sunday priests. I was contacted and have tomorrow off from Trinity, so I agreed.
I'm looking forward to it.
Just one service at 9 am--their summer schedule.
We shall see.
We have Bible Study on Wed. at noon at Trinity, Milton.
We've been reading John and are in the chapters where he is telling his disciples that he will leave them and come again and send the Holy Spirit the second time he leaves.
The disciples are totally confused and don't get it.
And they won't until the Spirit falls on them.
The people in the class are really into it and make amazing points, sometimes even conflicting with my views.
It's a great hour.
We have Eucharist before hand and taste the Body and the Blood.
I love that hour.
Well worth the 35 minute drive to get there.
I couldn't eat breakfast or lunch--sick at the stomach.
Finally got down from food at dinner.
Feel OK now.
Don't know what caused it.
Didn't sleep well last night.
Could have started then.
Better sneezy than queezy.
Can't spell either....
TRINITY SUNDAY 2024
For most of my career, I’ve been able to avoid preaching on Trinity Sunday.
At St. James in Charleston, West Virginia, I had a retired priest helper and a deacon, so they got Trinity Sundays.
At St. Paul’s in New Haven, I had lots of seminarians to assign the day to.
At St. John’s in Waterbury, there were clergy aplenty—active and retired, seminarians and a lay assistant to give Trinity Sunday to.
At my time in the Middlesex Cluster all I could do was call in sick or mumble a non-sense sermon on this day.
At Trinity, Milton, there is a lay-reader that covers for me one Sunday a month. Guess whether I let him have Trinity Sunday.
It’s time I faced up to the Truth—the Trinity baffles me and I don’t know what to say on this day.
Two stories that give proof to my point.
Eldridge Cleaver, in his autobiography Soul on Ice, tells how, when he was in prison, he saw the opportunity to be in a Roman Catholic confirmation class. He knew it would get him out of his cell for a couple of hours a week, so he signed up.
At some point the priest who was leading the course asked if anyone could explain the ‘mystery of the Trinity.”
Eldridge was about to raise his hand after a time of silence and say something about ‘three-in-one oil’ when the priest proclaimed, “of course you can’t, it’s a ‘mystery’!”
Cleaver dropped the class.
A second story.
St. Augustine was on a beach pondering the way to figure out the Trinity, when he saw a small boy, with a bottle on the shore.
The boy was actually an angel!
Augustine went over to him and said, “what are you trying to do?”
The boy/angel answered “I’m trying to get the ocean into my bottle.”
Augustine laughed and said, “You can’t get the ocean into that bottle!”
And the angel boy replied, “then how can you seek to comprehend the Trinity?”
And, along with his bottle, disappeared.
Three in one and one in three makes very little sense to me.
One plus one plus one is three—not ‘one’. Yet in the doctrine of the Trinity, all three are One….
But ponder this: one times one times one is One!
The Trinity defies our logical mathematics.
Paul writes to the church in Rome: “and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
All I can pray for is that hope and that love and that the Holy Spirit will pour into our hearts.
In my blessing at the end of each service, I don’t say ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’—I say instead, ‘God, our creator, Jesus our Savior and the Holy Spirit, our companion.’
That’s the best I can do about the Trinity.
I just hope it is enough….
We have Rhododendron by our back deck, our front porch and in our front yard.
It is blooming and is glorious.
It is also the state flower of where Bern and I are from--West Virginia.
Or as natives there say it: 'West by God Virginia'.
Both our children were born in Charleston, WV, while I was priest at St. James Church--an all Black Church. Not enough Black priests in the Episcopal Church....
Neither Josh or Mimi grew up with any racial discrimination in them.
Josh even married an Asian woman.
So, I'm glad that was where they were born and how they turned out.
And the trees are blooming and glorious.
