Paper was the greatest invention ever!
So many helpful things are made of paper: tissues, bathroom paper, paper towels, calendars, newspapers, typing paper and my favorite of all--books.
I read at least 5 books a week--mostly mysteries. But there is also the Bible and Episcopal Prayer Books.
I find a lot of comfort, hope and wonder in books.
Thank God for paper....
I'm off this Sunday and the Sunday after next Sunday.
By contract, I only work on three Sundays a month and this month has five Sundays.
I like time off, but I don't go to church.
I've told people the reason I still work at 77 is if I didn't I'd never darken a church door.
That's pretty much true.
I don't know why, but I don't go to church as a participant--only as a priest.
Probably bad of me, but the way it is.
I wore a long sleeve shirt all day.
Not as hot as tomorrow will be.
I don't care.
I love the heat.
It's the cold that gets to me.
I'm getting old.
Cold and 'old' don't do well together.
Today we started on the Book of Acts.
I don't like much about Acts.
I believe even less about it.
But we began with the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples.
It was a good session.
Lots of thoughts and questions.
And we begin with communion--very short.
A good hour to be at.
The sermon I gave today (posted earlier) was one of the shortest I've even given.
But I got over a dozen compliments and questions.
Maybe I preach too long.
Huh!
You can email me!
I get in through Micrsoft Edge in a way I can do but don't understand.
Frustrating but do-able.
See you on email soon....
June 9, 2024
From time to time, I have heard people criticize Jesus’ actions in the Gospel you heard this morning.
Some of the time they say he is disrespecting his family by not recognizing their presence.
Other times they say “no one can be a brother or sister without sharing DNA.”
Let me tell you a little about myself.
I am an only child. My father was 40 and my mother was 37. I might have had bothers or sisters had my father not served in World War II until 18 months before I was born.
Another thing—I was born into the Pilgrim Holiness Church. We left when I was 5 and became Methodists. Let me assure you that “mountain Methodists” in Southern West Virginia made Methodists in New England seem like high church Anglicans!
Everyone in both those churches were called ‘bother’ or ‘sister’. I was ‘brother Jimmy’ until I went to college and found the Episcopal Church. My introduction was in a ‘house church’—no building to call it’s own.
In fact, the ‘house church’ was the attic above our apartment in Morgantown after Bern and I were married after I received a Master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School. We moved back there so Bern could finish her degree and I could be a social worker in child protection.
The first time I was in a brick and mortar church was to be received into the Episcopal Church.
But I assure you of this—the other members of that ‘house church’ WERE my brothers and sisters. It was them that convinced me to go back to seminary and be ordained. And lots of them attended my ordination.
So, I fully understand what Jesus meant when he called the people in the room were his brothers and sisters and mother.
The only member of the house church who was over 30 was a woman in her 80’s who was the first to tell me “go back to seminary, Jim. I mean it!”
The people in all the churches I have served have been my brothers and sisters.
And now it’s your turn.
Thank you from the bottom of heart, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
For an only child, I’ve had a lot of siblings….
Thank you and Shalom.
