Faith in Progress

Lent 3, Year A March 27, 2011 John 4:5-42 (Begin in silence.) Those of you who were here last weekend may have noticed that John and I and the vestry were not here. We were away on a vestry retreat from early Saturday morning until mid-Sunday afternoon. It was, I hope I can speak for all of us when I saw this, an incredible experience and something that I think you will see influencing this place in our future together. A handful of folks from St. Aidan’s, including Lisa Richard, our senior warden, had recently received training in discernment from the Diocese. Lisa found the training meaningful and so suggested to John that she bring it to the vestry during our retreat. As I did just now, we began in silence, and that silence was repeated throughout the weekend. (At first, it probably felt uncomfortable for many. But by the end it was old hat.) And then we spent quite a while talking through, and buying into, a series of “listening guidelines.” The guidelines were things like...

For some reason this Lent feels different to me than in years past.  I think the tone for me was set this year by our Ash Wednesday Kids' Service, which is so joyful and inspiring for me.  We start by burning last year's palms and sing songs and tell stories and talk about Lent with Baptism as the backdrop.  Lent as a time to think about how to live out those baptismal promises; the ashes as a reminder of the cross etched on our foreheads with oil during our baptism - a reminder that we are children of God.  And then last week I went to the Seminary for a Lenten Quiet Day, led by VTS Professor Kathleen Staudt using the writings of Evelyn Underhill.  One of the readings that really stuck with me was from Underhill's book The Spiritual Life .  Writing about the Lord's prayer, she said:  "To say day by day 'Thy Kingdom Come'—if these tremendous words really stand for a conviction and desire—does not mean “I quite hope that some day the Kingdom of God ...

Last Epiphany, Year A Transfiguration Sunday March 6, 2011 This morning is all about transfiguration. I haven’t preached on this Sunday before and so I hadn’t realized that apparently the last Sunday of Epiphany is always all about transfiguration. Every year on the Sunday before Lent begins you get either this Old Testament reading about Moses meeting God on the mountaintop or a reading about Elijah ascending into heaven on his chariot of fire. And you also get some version of our Gospel reading about Jesus on the mountaintop. All of these stories involve people meeting God and being changed in appearance – being transfigured by their experience. Or at least, that was always what I thought they were about. When I was in seminary, I got to be up on that mountain with Jesus and see the transfiguration for myself. Well, sort of. In seminary, each student is placed in a small group for weekly worship and fellowship. The groups take turns leading worship and my turn happened to fall...