This week has been the warmest in several months.
But not warm enough for me.
I love warmth--the older I get, the more I love it.
Says something about me, I guess.
But come on Spring and Summer.
I miss you.
Just me talking--or, more correctly--typing.
See you soon, I hope.
...usually because I have to go to church, preach and stay awake during the Eucharist.
I told Bern that Daylight savings time should be taking off ten minutes a day for six days.
She said, "that's a great idea!"
But I know she didn't mean it.
I've felt beat up for the whole day.
Driving to Milton made me crazy.
I think 10 minutes a day for six days IS a great idea.
On the first Sunday in Lent this year, Luke takes us into the wilderness to watch Jesus be tempted by Satan.
It is hard to read and react to.
All of us have experienced 'temptation'--and sometimes given in to it.
But not Jesus.
He rejects the devil at every point.
Good for him!
And better for us, because Jesus is on our side and will comfort us and protect us when we are tempted.
Let us pray we do not give in to temptation....
I've been looking at the hundreds of pictures I have in the drawers of my desk and seeing my Dad a lot.
He was a cold miner until WW2 and when he came back he couldn't go back in the mines. He worked at my Uncle Russel's grocery store (as I did) and then became an insurance sales man.
He was kind and gracious to me.
I miss him to this day.
A good man.
A miner, a soldier, a grocery store worker, an insurance salesman.
I miss him greatly.
We did Ash Wednesday at noon.
There were more people than I imagined their would be--nearly 20--6 of whom I did not know until I introduced myself.
I gave a short homily on "Ashes, Ashes, all fall down."
The music was wondrous. Passing the peace joyful.
One of the people there emailed me to say how moved they were by the service. It was their first Ash Wednesday service and they wanted to let me know how deeply it affected them.
Emails like that are a gift from God....
Ash Wednesday is upon us.
Remember the childhood saying: "Ring around the roses, Pocket full of posies, Ashes, Ashes, All fall down"?
We are dust and ashes and we will return there.
Not a hopeful day, except for Jesus' promise in Luke that if we 'do good' in secret, God will reward us.
We shall know when we know.
...is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
My sermon is called "In the Presence of God".
All the readings and the collect refer, in one way or another, to being in the presence of God.
I want the Parishioners and me to long for the presence of God.
I tell a them about my last conversation with my father--who had been senile for 3 years. He was in the hospital and we had the best conversation we'd had in all those years. It was as if we were in the presence of God and God gave me my father back for 45 minutes.
By the time I got home, the hospital called and he had died.
I went back to sit with his body. A Catholic priest came by to ask if I wanted him to give Dad 'last rites'.
My father was a Baptist and then a Methodist, but my experience of that last conversation let me be open to anything.
So, he had Catholic 'last rites'!
I'll tell people tomorrow that we are 'in the presence of God' when the bread and wine are blessed and become the Body and Blood of Christ.
I pray they'll believe me, because I believe it so profoundly.
