Faith in Progress

June 30, 2013 6 Pentecost, Proper 8 (Year C) Luke 9:51- 62   On the last day of school, my daughter’s elementary school had a talent show.   About a week before, a notice came home announcing it, and inviting any student that was interested to sign up by giving a brief statement of their talent.   Sophie wanted to be in the talent show.    I couldn’t believe it.   I never in a thousand years would have signed up for a talent show when I was a kid.   First, I was too insecure to feel like I had any talents when I was her age.   Second, I couldn’t have imagined being up there – totally vulnerable – in front of all those people – my peers.   What if I was no good?   What if I got nervous and forgot what I was doing?   What if they didn’t clap for me, or worse yet, made fun of me?   And so I immediately projected all my childhood fears and angst onto my daughter.          ...

June 2, 2013 2 Pentecost, Year C 1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43             We’re coming to the tail end of the construction that has been part of this place for so long.   The end is almost in sight.   In recent weeks especially, it has been great fun to peek into the construction site and watch it transform.   We are so close to walking through our bright new entryway, flushing the toilets in our big new bathrooms, and growing in faith in our beautiful new education room.   If you haven’t been here long, it might seem like it’s been an effortless process.   But for the multiple vestries that have been overseeing the discerning and the compromise and the planning, for the leaders involved in the capital campaigns, for John working with the architects and builders to ensure the details are in place, this has been a long, long journey.             ...

Last year's prayer stations were so much fun that I brought the idea back (some the same, some new) this year for Pentecost.  They seem like such a tangible experience of the Holy Spirit still at work.  A reminder that the wild experience of the Spirit that the disciples experienced at Pentecost is still available to the rest of us.  Here's what we offered this year: For Our Community - Blank notecards were set out with names and pictures of people in the St. Aidan's community who have been separated from us by a move or by sickness.  Alternatively people could choose someone in their life that they were feeling called to reconnect with.  I have since mailed or delivered more than 30 beautiful cards and letters that brightened up a lot of days. Mandalas - Blank circles and art supplies were provided for people who wanted to engage in this meditative art form. Our Daily Bread - An invitation to pick up a food item from one of the baskets of donation...

Easter 5, Year C April 28, 2013 John 13:31-35 “A new commandment I give to you,” says Jesus to his friends.   “That you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Sometimes it’s easy to love.   When you are newly dating, or newly married and you haven’t yet figured out all those things about that other person that make you crazy.    When a friend needs you and it fits into your schedule to help.   When your kids are at their sweetest, or maybe sleeping.   When strangers are far off and inoffensive.   But somehow I don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about.   Since he’s telling us to love as he’s loved, I’m guessing it means something a lot harder and more complicated.   Loving people that are nothing like us.   Loving people that we passionately disagree with.   Loving people who have done atrocious things.   Loving people who are destitute, unclean, diseased, friendless.  ...

Easter 3, Year C April 14, 2013   I read an article recently about something called Status Quo Bias.*   Status Quo Bias is defined as “an inappropriate (irrational) preference for an option because it preserves the status quo.”   In other words, people tend to prefer things to stay relatively the same, even if the alternative is something objectively better/more interesting/more beneficial to society.   The article talked about the effect this bias has on everything from how we choose insurance plans to how we invest our money to how we elect public officials.   I’m betting this bias also affects where we choose to live, where we go to church, the jobs we are in, who we choose to marry, how we raise our children, whether or how we pray.   In fact, the researchers who wrote the article argued that Status Quo Bias is responsible for most opposition to human advancement.             I didn’t k...

Easter 2013 Luke 24:1-12               When I was about to graduate from seminary and started looking for a job, I interviewed with a rector who asked me whether I believed in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.   Whether I believed that Jesus’ actual body came alive again and that same body ascended into heaven a while later.   And this might sound odd coming from a priest, but to tell you the truth, I actually hadn’t thought much about it.   I don’t have any problem with the Easter story of the empty tomb.   I know they are stumbling blocks for many people, but for me Jesus’ miracles in general aren’t hard to believe.   And so I answered something like, “Um…, I guess so,” which I’m sure was not the rousing proclamation of faith the rector was looking for.   I suspect my name was scratched off the list of candidates pretty quickly.   And I crossed that church off my list of ...

Lent 5, Year C March 17, 2013 John 12:1-8 I’ve been dabbling this Lent.   I got to Ash Wednesday and still didn’t have much of an idea of what I wanted to give up or take on for Lent.   I think this indecision was due partly to a lack of organization, partly to a fear that I wouldn’t be able to live up to whatever I came up with, and partly to a realization that my plans for Lent often don’t end up feeling as meaningful as I’d hoped.   And so for me, this Lent has been an interesting mish-mash inspired by a few things I’ve been reading.   I’ve been keeping up with the Bible Challenge readings and also subscribing to a couple Lenten e-mail series – one from the Episcopal Public Policy Network about violence in society and one from Credo (a group related to the Episcopal Church’s pension fund) about feasting and fasting.   But my favorite one is a short daily video sent each day from the brothers at the Society of St. John the Evangelist about prayer. ...