Category: Lost in the Stars?

What a Privilege

In August Jean Rorher, a friend at St. Saviour’s Parish, Bar Harbor, emailed me a flier from “Troops Out Now.” It is at

http://troopsoutnow.org/S29now.pdf

After some phone and email conversations with the folks at Troops Out Now, I decided to go to the September 22-28 Encampment by the Capitol and the September 29 March to end the war. I cannot believe that one day longer in Iraq will do any good.

Years ago, Katrina and I lay down on the sidewalk in front of the South African Embassy in New York City with twenty or thirty other protesters. Mandela was still on Robin Island and apartheid was in full swing. We were arrested, loaded into paddy wagons, and sang “God Bless Africa” as we bounced along. We were held at the station for a few hours after we were booked. It seemed a long time. We were finally released. The arrests were a daily event for a few years, as I remember. At our trial the judge asked, “Was there any violence that day?” One of our attorneys answered, “Not here in New York, Your Honor.” “Case dismissed,” said the judge.

Getting ready to drive to Washington I felt a desire to pray with other protesters by the Capitol. I wanted to listen to their ideas, their God given ideas about peace and war. That was the holy writ I wanted to understand. I wanted to listen to their prayer, the people and places that they would ask God to touch. I wanted to receive Jesus’ bread and wine with them — Bread and Wine of a political and religious prisoner who was brutalized by the occupying soldiers and tortured to death. That Friday was just one more bloody day in the Middle East. I wanted to give and receive strong abrazos/hugs of peace: Of your peace, Jesus, of your peace.

So I wondered, “Should I attempt to say a Mass for Peace outside the Capitol every day?” But hey, who do I think I am, Daniel Berrigan?

I emailed the Bishop of Washington and asked how I should ask his permission to say the Eucharist every day at the anti war protest by the Capitol. I wasn’t sure if I would obey an order not to say mass there. So I thought I wouldn’t ask permission. His assistant emailed me back conveying the bishop’s full approval. I took his approval and the assistance of two parishes near the Capitol as encouragement enough to go ahead.

I began to ask people to pray that this might serve God’s purposes rather than my desire for publicity. The Sunday before I drove south, people at the 7:30 a.m. Eucharist joined our rector in Bar Harbor, Jonathan Appleyard, in laying their hands on me and praying for me. I received a blessing I really needed.

In Boston en route I visited one of the groups that was sponsoring the encampment and the march. I met Gerry and other dedicated activists. They were involved in a handful of justice actions including the Jena Six. At the end of the meeting I asked their advice about my attempting to say a Peace Mass each day. They were frank and encouraging. Clerical hierarchy stuff was not wanted. Prayer was welcome.

I arrived in DC on Thursday, September 20th and checked out the site. On Friday and Saturday people started coming. We unloaded scaffolding and lumber to raise large banners and the stage. I met with various leaders asking what time a Peace Mass might work in their schedule. Everyone said, “Check with Imani.” Imani is a New Yorker, probably under 30, energetic, easy to talk to, an energetic leader of the daily camp meetings. He thought 10 am was OK.

Poster announced the mass around the encampment. Bill MacKaye (my host in DC) gave me the phrase, “Wherever you are on your spiritual journey you are welcome at this table.” He said it came from All Saints’ Church in Pasadena.

Ted Fletcher (in Southwest Harbor) and Bill MacKaye strongly advised me to do things “decently and in order.” That is, in a priest’s vestments and at a proper altar. “Be an Anglican.” I located a table/altar and a dark blue sheet to cover it. Also a glass goblet and a wooden bread dish. Green signs on four sides read, “Dona nobis pacem.” The altar was there 24 hours a day throughout the encampment.

On Monday, September 24th, five of us began the daily Mass for Peace. We woul sing something like “Paz, queremos Paz” after someone’s comment about peace during the first part of the Mass. Each person spoke one or more times about peace and war. There was often silence between people’s comments. The ideas that I heard were beautiful, reasonable, self effacing, gentle, calm, healing. We sang songs like “Ubi caritas” from Taize and “This Little Light of Mine.”

I treasure the memories of what different people said about peace and war. Beautiful hearts and ideas: Original, yet echoing Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalia Lama and others. Words were spoken slowly, uncertainly, and with intensity – attempting to express their own personal understanding of the evil that often begins within ourselves. I heard no self righteousness.

The woman in fatigues is holding a white pole. She was among the twenty or so Code Pink ladies at the demonstration. At the top of the pole was a large American flag upside down. (“The flag should never be displayed with the union down save as a signal of dire distress.” — Public Law 829) Dire distress? Yes! Bodies are being torn up every day.

After sharing ideas and songs people prayed for various things: For a sick or dying friend; Sometimes for the Representatives and Senators. One could feel their presence, their busyness, their confusion — in the white domed ant hill that loomed above us up the hill. I suppose they realize that their silence kills and wounds more people every day.

After the prayer we stood at the altar. I wore a hooded alb, sort of a monk’s outfit, as the mass began. Going to the altar I put on a white chasuble with red orphreys. A chasuble is a first century poncho. Orphreys are the stripes front and back. Katrina’s father had worn this chasuble when he ordained her in 1974. The people are facing me on the other side of the altar just out of the picture.

Everyone was invited to receive the bread and wine. During the week one person decided not to receive. The last person would give me the bread and wine. We had five to ten people each day — People of all ages including teenagers. Two Anglicans from England joined us. One regular was a former Roman Catholic who had tried and left the Mormon Church. One was a leader of the Green Party in DC. Three were Code Pink Ladies who wanted to give Bush and Cheney a pink slip. One brought a guitar and another an ancient Swedish precursor of the violin. I loved making music with them.

I miss the people. It was a privilege to be with them.

When I got home I received the following email from the Code Pink Lady who was holding the upside down American flag during one of the masses.

George,

It was a pleasure to meet and spend time with you. I was quite fond of the encampment and the peace mass was my absolute favorite part of it, even edging out the best nights of rocking the rulers. ["Rocking the Rulers" was music and speeches every night on the stage.]

It is strange to be home. Good, but strange. A more altruistic communal lifestyle seems better to me, and I have been imagining a place where devotees of all the world’s religions live together and pray each others prayers and rituals and invent rituals in common. I’m told that the rabbi here was once a Mormon. I’d dearly love to meet her.

Peace and Joy!

Indeed, Peace and Joy for sure.

Recently Jonathan Appleyard gave me a quote from Debbie Little Wyman on worship outside verses worship inside.

“When I am inside, I’m not sure that we are/can be the church.”

Debbie ought to know. She got the outside worship started on the Boston Common every Sunday. My feet still hurt from a bitter cold Sunday last December when I worshiped there. Check out:

http://www.ecclesia-ministries.org/common_cathedral.html

My experience of worshiping outside with five or ten people below the capitol are so much more memorable than dozens/hundreds of “inside” services I have attended or led. And I remember saying mass in the chief’s kghotla — a semi-circle stockade of logs where trials and meetings take place under the African sun. This was in Maun, Botswana, between the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Swamp. I did that to escape the white hotel, Riley’s Bar, where I also said mass in the “salon” — mostly for whites and English speaking locals.

Phineas Gitta reminded me of the time Katrina said mass for at the Kansas City Airport for Phinease and his family and friends as he was about to fly to Uganda. It was also a holy moment in time. Outside. We spoke directly into the ear of God.

Outside is different from inside. Inside we have the constraints of walls, doors, floors, ceilings, heat or cooling, furniture, and the financial cost of all those THINGS. These “things” constrain our speaking to God who is no thing. Someone owns these things and may control us in their space. I would add the constraints of salaries, benefits, housing, etc for those who imagine they are the hierarchy. Inside it is religion. Ligaments. Re-ligaments. All bound up. Needs Exlax.

Indeed, When I am inside, I’m not sure we are/can be the church. Jesus, help us.

I’m happy that I led the peace masses. However I am not sure I would do it again. It WAS good. Totally. Yet . . . . The white building on the hill did not fall down.

The good was the doing of it. What it achieved in the universe of suffering was minuscule, I think. Is that heresy? Or the desire to control? I don’t know. I did meet and pray with some beautiful people. We touched each other. Perhaps that is the purpose of life.

No Comments by on January 30, 2008
filed in Lost in the Stars?, Peace & Justice

Maggie Ross in Maine — March 1 through 9, 2008

Maggie Ross, a solemnly professed solitary directly responsible to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will visit the Diocese of Maine in the fourth week in Lent, 2008. Maggie Ross will lead a day of contemplation and worship called Bread and Silence in Hulls Cove and Portland:

Saturday March 1 10 am at the Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove.
Saturday March 8 10 am at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.
“Bread and Silence” is an extended meditation on the Eucharist that emphasizes the priesthood of our baptism. The process takes from three to five hours, depending on the number of participants. This is an opportunity to go deeply into the heart of Christianity; the rite draws on the most ancient Christian traditions. There is nothing else like it available in the church, and many people have found it to be a life-changing experience.

Clergy and religious are asked to please wear ordinary clothes so as not to distract from the focus of this event.

Attendance is strictly limited to 45 persons. Everyone is welcome (up to a total of 45.) To reserve a place − please register in advance by email to George Swanson at george@katrinasdream.org. In your email please mention which day you wish to attend − March 1 or March 8. The cost is $35. Checks may be made out to Katrina’s Fund and mailed to George Swanson at 349 Seawall Road, Manset, ME 04679. Scholarships are available.

Sunday March 2 Ross will preach at the 7:30 and 10 a.m. Eucharists at St. Saviour’s Parish in Bar Harbor.

Sunday March 9 Ross will lead the Adult Forum at 9 a.m. and preach at the 10 a.m. Eucharist at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.

Ross Compares the Church to the Gospel

Seabury Press has just republished Ross’s Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity. The Archbishop of Canterbury recommends the book as “a passionate and searching book which unsparingly sets the Gospel in judgment over the popular Christian idolatries of our time.”

The National Catholic Reporter comments, “The questions the author raises come from scriptural and patristic thought.”

In the foreword, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “Maggie Ross argues cogently and persuasively that we should provide the world with the paradigm of the self-emptying leadership of Christ – not self-serving, not self-aggrandizing, but poured out in selfless service of others.”

According to Seabury Press, Maggie Ross “…minces no words in her critique of the contemporary Church, and goes on to propose changes so sweeping and fundamental that we sense what a truly Christian Church would be.”

No Comments by on January 28, 2008
filed in Lost in the Stars?, Silent Prayer

Come Light Our Fire

Pentecost 2007
By Tom Ehrich  Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” (Acts 2.5-8)

I knew last night’s clinic for summer swim league officials would be long, so I brought a book to keep me calm.

The Duke faculty member to my left hadn’t brought a book. His only diversion was to rag me for reading. He kept it up for an hour. Apparently it troubled him that my approach to this meeting was different from his. He wanted me to speak his “language,” not my own.

So it goes in a land that promises unprecedented freedoms and yet shows a relentless drive toward conformity. From middle-school cafeteria to retirement center dining room, we try to impose narrow norms and styles.

Religion, unfortunately, leads the way with its demands that belief must meet certain standards, eternity belongs to a favored few, and God agrees 100% with our definitions of whose behavior, thought and personality are acceptable.

It’s as if we took the Day of Pentecost and turned it upside down. Instead of apostles learning to speak in the many languages of the world, legalistic religion tries to force the world’s many languages into its one narrow gate.

Instead of listening to the world, we expect the world to listen to us. Instead of walking into foreign lands and discovering who is there, as Jesus did, we declare the foreign off-limits for “believers” and make “diversity” an object of derision.

Yesterday, for example, the Archbishop of Canterbury pointedly excluded the gay Bishop of New Hampshire from the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. It seems the other kids don’t like him. The archbishop had less problem with an African prelate allied with the dictator of Zimbabwe. Sex trumps murder and corruption.

Wouldn’t it be astonishing if the world’s many tribes, races, nations, lifestyles and belief systems heard the Christian movement learning to speak their languages? Imagine a gay African being listened to by his bishop, not being denounced as a criminal. Imagine warring peoples sitting down together, not to be compelled into the one language of First World charity or military might or ideological supremacy, but allowed to discover their common humanity and to develop mutual respect.

Imagine a Christian leader brokering such discovery by listening, not orating, and by accepting, not by hurling scriptures as weapons.

I don’t expect the Archbishop of Canterbury to discover Pentecost grace as he tries to manage Anglicanism’s warring tribes. It starts with us and how we approach the fact of diversity in our smaller worlds.

Source:  CLICK HERE

No Comments by on May 24, 2007
filed in Church Politics, Lost in the Stars?

New Life

Christians Seek ‘Fresh Expressions’ of Church Life
By Ekklesia Staff Writers 21 Apr 2007

According to the latest research, 39 per cent of Church of England parishes have started a ‘Fresh Expression’ of church since 2000 – a new initiative to connect with those who are currently outside church, and who may feel disconnected from some inherited ecclesiastical structures.

Fresh Expressions is a movement led by the Church of England and the Methodist Church to nurture contemporary forms of church life alongside traditional ones. It has some parallels with aspects of the non- or post-denomination ‘emerging church’ movement, with initiatives such as the Church of Scotland’s ‘Church Without Walls’, and with earlier ecumenical projects such as Churches Together in Britain and Ireland’s (CTBI) Building Bridges of Hope.

Examples of Fresh Expressions, says the C of E, includes a network of cell churches involving Merseyside police officers, a pair of surfers preparing to set up a church centre on Newquay’s beachfront, and a special monthly service in Cambridge for Goths.

These and other less exotic examples feature in a DVD released today to mark the continuing expansion of the programme. It has an introduction by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.

Expressions: the DVD 2 – Changing Church in Every Place, has been developed as a tool for continuing the momentum of establishing and sustaining these new forms of church. It draws on the experiences of pioneers in fresh types of ministry and highlights that Fresh Expressions can be set up anywhere, by churches from any tradition.

The DVD shows how Fresh Expressions have already been successfully developed in a range of specific contexts: within work places or leisure networks; in rural communities; by emphasizing sacramental elements; and with groups of young people.

Dr Williams says: “I’m colossally encouraged by the amount of activity that there seems to be around the church at the moment. This DVD tells part of this new story. I hope [people] will watch it, give thanks to God and get involved.”

The film, says its producers “also indicates a deepening in understanding of how Fresh Expressions can evolve to continue to meet the needs of the community, and reflects the sharing of good practice and creative ideas currently taking place across the Churches.”

Four in-depth ‘discussion starter’ films are also included to guide local churches in thinking about contemporary Christian mission. The new DVD is available through Church House Bookshop in London and other outlets.

Source: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/5108

No Comments by on April 23, 2007
filed in Evangelism, Lost in the Stars?

One Beggar to Another

St. Saviour’s is Beautiful People
A Sermon by George Swanson
Second Sunday of Easter, 2007

Jesus said to Thomas, “Happy are those who have not seen me.”

In the name of Jesus, our dead and risen Saviour.

Chilton Knudsen, the Bishop of Maine, visited St. Saviour’s this winter. At a meeting before the service she was asked, “Why is the Episcopal Church declining in Maine? Our membership has really gone down.” The bishop answered the question then – and in the sermon at the Eucharist – encouraging us to take charge of our situation. That afternoon I found myself almost in tears. I thought of the expensive work that was going on in our building – repairing the Tiffany windows and repointing the Victorian stone walls. Huge buckets of money are being spent to preserve the building. I remembered an impressive brick church I saw in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana years ago. Totally empty. Not even a single house or building near it. It must have been thirty or forty feet high, with a beautiful tower, nicely proportioned, maybe capable of holding a thousand people. It had been built at great cost most likely when Victoria ruled. British people had probably given their money, maybe even imported good British bricks, to build NOT A CHURCH, but a home for the church. For a church is the people.

Here we are today in this building. What will this building (it’s not a church – we’re the church) what will this beautiful pile of expensive stones be like a hundred years from now? Most of us are old here. At 73 I am middle aged! None of us will be alive 50 years from now. Will God’s people gather here? Will it be converted to condominiums? A disco? Or turned into a municipal parking lot?

I almost wept.

I phoned Jonathan on Monday and told him I had some completely wild ideas of how we might welcome people into our beautiful church, which is US! WE ARE THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCH. The building isn’t bad either.

I offered to walk through the building and grounds with him and share my off-the-wall ideas. Jonathan said, “Why don’t we invite everyone to join us.” I said, “Sure.” And that is what we will do on Saturday, April 28. Morning Prayer is at 8:30 a.m. George’s “Pipe Dreams” will start at 9 a.m. in the parish hall with coffee.

Then Jonathan sent me a great booklet by Charles Fulton and James Lemler. It’s called Faith and Hope. I would have bought copies to give to you all, but it costs $3 for heaven’s sake. So I’ll tell you about it – later. I’ll end up with some of their ideas of what we can do to keep the disco out.

So far this has just been an introduction. Setting the scene. Why I am talking to you today.

I’m going to raise three questions and SUGGEST some answers. Your answers will be better because you know the parish and Bar Harbor better than I ever will. Here are the questions:

Who’s hurting?

What do they need?

How can we help?

ONE – Who’s hurting?

You’ll be able to answer this so much better than I can. I am FROM AWAY. I have very shallow roots here. I’m a transplant from San Francisco, Botswana, Kansas City, Jersey City and other blessed points on this revolving planet. Yet I love it here, I love you. Katrina and William and Hélène and I have received your love here. I know what it is to be welcomed and included by beautiful people. I like it.

Who is hurting in Bar Harbor? On Mt. Desert Island? Well let me suggest three groups of people I think are hurting. Check me out. You may think of more.

PARENTS AND KIDS – How hard it is to raise children! God, it is so hard. It was not easy for me and Katrina. I suspect it is harder now. Two families left St. Saviour’s because we do not have a Sunday school. One of my crazy ideas is that BECAUSE we do not have a Sunday school we can welcome many families with children into our beautiful Church – not the building! But into the circle of our love and relationship with God and with each other – helping them in their difficult and eternally important work of raising their children. They will become OUR children too.

I’ll offer my suggestions at the end.

GAYS AND LESBIANS – Yes, I have rejected gays and lesbians as REAL Christians. Not publicly. But in my mind. “They must not be QUITE RIGHT.” I should be kind to them. Etc Etc Etc. Racism all over again.

Katrina and I had – and I have now – gay and lesbian friends – dear friends – people who stood with us in our troubles and with whom we attempted to stand in theirs. But deep down I wasn’t sure. I mean, the BIBLE and all that!

Newspaper people can really be a pain right where we sit. They ask so many questions that they make a person THINK. That happened to me.

Seven year of trouble began in 1986 after a wooden gothic Victorian building in Jersey City burned almost to the ground. This was where the beautiful people who were Ascension Church had worshipped for generations in Jersey City. Newspapers, TV, and the radio described the conflict between the people of Ascension and our bishop over the fire insurance settlement. Big bucks.

Ari Goldman, the religion editor of the New York Times quizzed me on the telephone – asking why we would not just let the bishop and the diocese have the money. Were we against him because he welcomed and ordained gays? Goldman came to Jersey City and continued that line of questioning. “Would I marry gays?” “I don’t want to marry anyone. If they end up getting divorced and hating each other, they may hate me too.” “What about lesbians?” “I don’t know. Some young women asked me about that. I happened to have a priest staying in the rectory next door who had publicly identified herself as a lesbian – so I got them together.” On and on with the questions. Finally I lost my temper and shouted very very slowly and distinctly to make him understand. (I think God was really trying to make ME understand.) WE’RE IN THE BLESSING BUSINESS, WE’RE NOT IN THE CURSING BUSINESS!

The article in the New York Times accurately explained our reason for fighting the diocese’s attempt to take the money: “Father Swanson says, ‘The people of Ascension Church paid the insurance premiums and they expect to receive the settlement.’”

And as a gift from the dear God – I learned what business we are really in!

I have since read James Alison’s beautiful books. He is at once firmly rooted in the Bible, in Catholic theology, and with the gift of a seeing what God is doing today. I have had the pleasure of becoming a friend of his. His viewpoint is, I think, a gift from our dear God to a world that has persecuted and rejected and marginalized gay and lesbian people IN GOD’S NAME. Alison is a Roman Catholic priest, is he openly gay, he is able to show reasonably and theologically and biblically that the Bible verses about men-sleeping-with-men and women-sleeping-with-women are most likely talking about worshipping other gods with sexual intercourse. Idolatry and blasphemy is condemned – not gay and lesbian relationships.

So – are gays and lesbians hurting in Bar Harbor? I expect so – both them and their families and friends. I subscribe to a gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender email sharing. The suffering is real. So much rejection.

Probably 10% of the people in Bar Harbor and MDI are gay or lesbian. They are certain not welcome AS THEY ARE in some congregations.

PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS – What suffering here! I live in the Heroin capital of Hancock County, Southwest Harbor. How about that. Actually that was a few years ago. Today it may be oxycontin. Or meth.

Think of our beautiful, promising teenagers who die every year in alcohol driven automobile accidents! And the “drain board drunks” – women who nip all day to cope with unbearable inner pain. Some of our neighbors suffer from addiction to alcohol.

We can be addicted to food – harming our bodies, shortening our lives, and numbing our enjoyment of life itself. Some of our children are obese.

There is so much pain around us in town and on the island.

We, the wounded people of St. Saviour’s can welcome, embrace, and love many hurting people into our healing family.

TWO – What do they need?

They need HOPE.

And to get hope they need to know the TRUTH.

Here’s the truth about God and every human being. The Episcopal bishops wrote it on March 20th, this year. Hey, it ain’t perfect, maybe, but it’s pretty good. Here it is:

We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God.

Like good listeners our bishops have observed where WE were going. They have spoken and we can ratify what they said. We can say to the world, to MDI and to Bar Harbor, THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS FROM JESUS!

How do we share this TRUTH with Bar Harbor? With our island?

In their booklet, Truth and Hope, Fulton and Lemler imply “Don’t tell them that this building is a church!” Here’s an adaptation of what they say about us folks over 50.

When St. Saviour’s embraces evangelism fully, it will be different from TV evangelism. It will be respectful and graceful, inviting mutual sharing.

Americans see religion differently now – especially those under 50.

Over 50, we want to talk about where we go to church, about the sacred place which is reverenced, decorated, and “close to God.”

Those under 50 are interested in everything but where. They ask, How do you pray? What difference does it make in your life? How do you experience God?

So . . . if we want St. Saviour’s to grow (or even survive after we all die) us old dogs will have to learn new tricks. We will have to learn how to tell anyone in Bar Harbor how we pray, what use it is to us, and listen to their experience.

THREE – How can we help?

Finally! You thought I would never get here. These are just suggestions. These thoughts came to be on that afternoon in February when my eyes were moistening with tears.

PARENTS & KIDS – We can make our worship a REAL thanksgiving meal. Eucharist means Thanksgiving. None of us would send our kids away from the table on thanksgiving. But when we have little children and grandchildren we make some adjustments so they don’t suffer too much. We don’t force them to act like adults.

What changes would that be? I don’t know. Together we can find what works. It might be more repetitions in the music: possibly Taize responses sung to the Prayers of the People. Maybe a Bible story told in contemporary language rather than a lesson read in boring language. Maybe processions, marching around. That’s an old Christian tradition. Young or old, can march around (if they wish) at the opening hymn, and when we perhaps all go to the altar for the great thanksgiving, etc. Maybe less stuff from a book and more call and response as in the Black church. Less paper and more soul.

GAYS & LESBIANS – First of all we have to be sure what the good news is. Can’t fake it. I have had some beautiful conversations with exceedingly patient gay and lesbian friends – as they answer my blunt and basic questions.

We had these sorts of conversations after Katrina’s ordination. Good people were offended or at least really uncertain about what we had done on July 29, 1974. And with many people the conversations were special and sacred and sometimes painful.

St. Paul says we should be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It may take some discussion for us to understand that hope.

What can we do? As we come to KNOW that this is the Gospel of our dead and risen Saviour:

We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church.

Then we will be led, I believe, to embrace and love and accept gays and lesbians as ordinary cussed parishioners like the rest of us. Just family.

PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS – This is so hard. So painful. There is a young man, perhaps even today, in a British jail. He is addicted to cutting himself. He is covered with scars. He says that he has so much pain inside himself that when he cuts himself he really hurts LESS. As someone with an addiction to food, I can understand that. Inner pain requires medication.

Now-a-days he is not cutting himself. He has found silent prayer. How about that? The pain within him is not gone but it is much less. We have had this available all our lives from the beautiful people who have told us about God. Some of these beautiful people are here around us today – like those who went before us. They built a building and invited God into their lives for US. Pretty good. We get medication here that is better than cutting ourselves or overeating.

A bishop in India said that inviting people into the Christian family is like one beggar telling another where to find food. We might say it is like one sick person telling another where to find a really good doctor. The treatment is free. One doesn’t have to sign anything. It is given without any cost to us. There are no requirements for joining the family. Jesus saved every human being. Already done.

Pope John Paul was not one of my heroes.  However, he has been quoted as saying something like this:

Is there a Hell?  Yes.  Hell is certainly here on earth.  And, yes, there is hell after death.  But I think the hell after death is probably empty.

Sure, it’s good to let AA and other Twelve Step groups meet free in our building. But what is so much more healing is our welcoming, embracing, and sharing the incredibly wonderful medication that God gives us here – sharing it with others who suffer as we do.

There are 75 places to sit at the 7:30 a.m. thanksgiving meal. There are 25 to 50 empty seats every Sunday. They belong to the people in Bar Harbor who desperately need what God has given us. Without a word from us they will never enter the door.

There are 325 places to sit at the 10 a.m. thanksgiving meal. More than one hundred seats are always empty. They do not belong to us. They belong to people on Mt. Desert Island who have not yet found what God has given to us. There is only one way they will find it. You or I will tell them what God has done for us.

Summing it all up:

We can share with others – listening & talking – beggar to beggar – wounded to wounded – the beautiful God who is within us ALL.

We can grow – for our own sake and for the sake of those around us who are still hurting so much – we can grow closer and closer, always closer to the dear God who is at the center of who we really are. And closer to each other.

Thanks to Bishop Knudsen, I am in touch with Maggie Ross, an Anglican teacher of prayer. Ross recommended a book to me, Into the Silent Land, by Martin Laird. It is helping me get close to God who has always been within me. There are slips in your bulletins about the book. The Archbishop of Canterbury likes it. Desmond Tutu likes it too.

Next Sunday I will have copies of the book to loan or sell after each service. I will meet with you at 9 a.m. in the Rectory Commons next Sunday and we can talk about silent prayer.

Aren’t we lucky to be St. Saviour’s Church!

Happy are we who have not seen.

Amen

Into the Silent Land
By
Martin Laird

“This book is different. There are plenty of books on contemplation that feel tired—either wordy and labored or unhelpfully smooth and idealistic. But this is sharp, deep, with no clichés, no psychobabble and no short cuts. Its honesty is bracing, its vision utterly clear; it is a rare treasure.”

— Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

“Often they say ‘you learn how to swim by swimming’ but a good coach or swimming manual is essential. Equally, we could say ‘you learn how to be contemplative by contemplating’ and a good guide or mentor is necessary. Into the Silent Land is just that. I tried it and it works. Try it.”

— Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize Winner & Former Archbishop and Primate of South Africa

“We are built for contemplation. Communion with God in the silence of the heart is a God-given capacity, like the rhododendron’s capacity to flower, the fledgling’s for flight, and the child’s for self-forgetful abandon and joy. If the grace of God that suffuses and simplifies the vital generosity of our lives does not consummate this capacity while we live, then the very arms of God that embrace us as we enter the transforming mystery of death will surely do so. This self-giving God, the Being of our being, the Life of our life, has joined to Himself two givens of human life: we are built to commune with God and we will all meet death.” — Martin Laird in the Introduction

3 Comments by on April 15, 2007
filed in Evangelism, Lost in the Stars?, Peace & Justice, Silent Prayer, Women & Justice

A Sermon for Holy Saturday

Jesus’ descent into the underworld

Something strange is happening- – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.

At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.”

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake.

I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.

Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you.

See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image.

On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back.

See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise.

I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.

I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God.

The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager.

The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.

The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday (P.G. 43, 439, 451, 462-463)
3 Comments by on April 7, 2007
filed in Lost in the Stars?