Faith in Progress

October 23, 2016 Luke 18:9-14   I‘m guessing we can probably all agree that this election seems to have brought our country to a time of crisis, though we might disagree about what makes it that way.   For me, it is almost unimaginable that a candidate for president of the United States excuses boasting about sexual assault with “locker room talk.”   But that’s really just the straw that broke the camel’s back.   We have become so polarized, and not just on the usual political issues, but on gender and race and religion and ethnicity.   It has been hard to watch us fall apart.     Given all that’s brewing in the world, at our monthly local Episcopal clergy lunch, someone asked how we were talking about this election in our congregations.  Several clergy spoke about how carefully they were balancing their words to speak about civility and love so as to reach but not offend Trump supporters in their congregations.  I was surprised.  Because, as I told this group at lunch, while

Today we’re celebrating the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.   Usually our annual celebration of Francis takes place during a short, outdoor pet blessing in the afternoon,  but I’d been longing to try having the pets included in the Church service instead, like the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where they bring in animals from the Central Park Zoo to bless every year.    No camels or kangaroos here, but still pretty exciting.   Luckily for these pets, we’re used to a little wildness and restlessness with our small human animals at this service, so they stand a good chance of fitting in. It’s a crazy idea, bringing animals into the church.  Much less bringing them in for a regular service.  There’s no telling what will happen.  The dogs might start barking at each other, or terrorizing the cats.  One of them might try to escape.  The poor kids like mine with no pets of their own might freak out.  Someone with allergies might start some wild unstoppable