A Positively Poetic Priest

After this weekend, after this summer of pain, I want to share this. Written earlier this summer, but so much so still applicable.  7/8/16 Value you buy yourself a gun a good one and expect to pay a few grand you paid the fee rolled the dice and brought home your death to carry a few grand! for protection ease of mind not too high a price to pay a gun requires ammunition steel plated bullet rounds stacks of magazines and cleaner oh and targets so your aim doesn't drop out of practice and of course the stickers the reputation to build upon your car no one messes with you just a few grand more while clean out your gun one day you hear shots across the corner well versed in explosion patterns you know the range and weapon into the fray you jump excitedly to defend your people (forgetting perhaps we all are people) alas you are hit alas you missed the only one dead the Samaritan barely old enough to be a man yet with ...

In honor of Soren Kierkegaard's lesser feast tomorrow, I would like to share a recent poem about struggling with faith. Kierkegaard wrote a lot about struggling with faith and what faith is. He thought about faith as a passion. Sometimes metaphor is the most helpful way to go.  Faith Faith seems Like kind of a bitch You think you know her well And all of a sudden she's gone Leaving behind her bipolar sister Doubt, who requires constant tending Yet after all the hospice care All the tears and broken prayers When Faith waltzes back in It's like sun shining through the cracks Of six months of stormy clouds And of course, you welcome her back With open arms, not believing your luck Ready to throw the grandest of grand Celebrations in her honor Naturally, only after some time, Do you realize you're still pushing her sister Around in the wheelchair Everywhere you go Complain, yes you do, occasionally mightily But always when you curl up at night You're grateful she...

4 September 2016  Proper 18C  The Cost of Discipleship  This one time... At church camp... The theme for the year was, "leap of faith." For some reason, a group of us got into our heads that any time the theme was mentioned, we needed to leap around. During the lessons, during the softball game, during craft time, if someone said, "leap of faith," we'd all get up and leap about. Leap! We tend to think of faith as a leap, something spontaneous in a way. Something that cannot be planned out. Faith doesn't work within an outlined list of duties or goals, or with a projection sheet. Yet, it seems like Jesus is saying today in the gospel passage, "I want you to plan, analyze, and figure out if you can be a disciple of mine." He suggests looking at the cost of being a disciple and personally seeing if you can pay. Have any of  you ever done a cost benefit analysis on your faith life? I certainly haven't. It wasn't part of the toolbo...

28 August 2016  Proper 17C  Imagine with me for a moment planning for your daughter's wedding.  Some of you have been on that train before, some of you are still looking forward to doing that in the future, and some of us may never do such a thing, but imagine it with me for a moment. Everyone is getting ready for the big day in the months leading up to it, and you spend countless hours checking out the banquet hall, picking out the table settings, the food and the order of its serving. You pay thousands of dollars in anticipation of the biggest party you'll ever throw. Then one day your daughter comes home with devastating news. The marriage is off. The wedding is not going to happen. In the after math of the emotional storm, you remember that you have already paid for a lavish four course meal in one of the ritziest halls in town.  What are you going to do?  A couple of years ago, a couple in Atlanta found themselves in this very situation. Do yo...

21 August 2016 Proper 16C As you may have guessed, I am a lover of words. Today’s gospel passage shares with us the story of Jesus healing a woman and the fall out that comes from his actions. Healing, literally means to make whole. A perfect definition for what Jesus does for this woman in the synagogue. He makes her whole again.  Jesus healing this lady was a gift, a gift of compassion. Not sought for, not asked for. This woman never asked to be healed. There she is minding her own business in the synagogue and Jesus interferes with her life. Simply a gift out of the goodness of Jesus' heart. He saw her and felt for her and knew he could make her better.  Yet, this gift from Jesus was quite disturbing to the leader of the synagogue where it took place. Interestingly, the leader of the synagogue doesn't seem to be surprised that the woman is healed of a demon that has kept her bent over and away from God for 18 years. No. What surprises and bothers him is the ...

14 August 2016 Proper 15C “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” This is one of the more well-quoted scenes from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring series. Like Frodo Baggins, we do have had to go through things we wish we didn’t need to go through. Unlike Frodo Baggins, we do not have to walk into the most dangerous kingdom on the map to destroy a powerful ring that could be used by the most evil man in the world to destroy the world, thankfully. But like, Frodo, we too have to decide what to do with the time in our lives that has been given to us. In the gospel passage this morning, Jesus is questioning what the people of his time are doing with their lives. It’s a question a few of us may ask ourselves now and again. What am I doing with my life? An existential quest...

7 August 2016 A number of years ago, my father really got into Martin guitars. The Martin guitar factory is fairly close to where my parents live and my father used to love to visit the factory, go on the tour, and hang out in their guitar shop. They are very nice guitars and can be quite expensive. He had all the brochures for trying to figure out which model he wanted. But he knew money was an issue, so he set his mind on a simple classic dreadnought design. However what we all knew was that he really wanted an Eric Clapton model of East Indian rosewood with herringbone trim. On Christmas morning that year we all could see the wrapped guitar shaped present under the tree and we all got excited for my father. He slowly unwrapped the case and we were all gathered around. He opened it up and peered inside. And then all of a sudden he shut the case quickly, set the case down, and walked out of the room! He was so surprised and shocked by the fact that inside the case was not the le...

31 July 2016 Luke 12:13-21 They say that everything comes around again in popular culture, and recently, I have seen people posting online about the game, Hungry Hungry Hippos. Not just the board game anymore, it is also being played, all the way from preschools to nursing homes, with people acting as the hippos trying to capture kickballs. The object of the game is to gather as many of the balls as you can possibly get without anyone else stealing them.  Hunger is an interesting aspect of our lives. Our first experience with hunger is the chemical signals our stomachs send to our brains telling us that our bodies need nutrients. This is definitely a good thing. We don’t want to starve to death. Beyond our bodies, we experience hunger in many other ways. We are hungry for good relationships, for peace, for comfort, for justice, for reconciliation. But some hungers can be destructive as well. When we hunger for more power, ambition, always to be right, or perfect, or for dr...

24 July 2016 Proper 12C My cousin has a two year old named Connor. In my family, currently, stories about Connor are ubiquitous. That's almost the only thing my Grandmother will talk about right now. Connor. when I was visiting her a couple of weeks ago, she told me stories about how seriously Connor takes prayer time. He always makes sure everyone is ready for prayer before dinner and he prays every day before bed. My Grandmother was talking to him one time and asked him if he had prayed for her the night before. The answer came back, “No.” My grandma was a bit surprised by this of course, and she asked him, “Do you ever pray for me?” “Yes.” He said. My grandmother was appeased, she told me, “Well, at least he is honest about his prayers.” Honest prayers... are we praying honest prayers? Do we pray for people when we say we will? I have a system of writing people name's down in a special notebook of mine so that I cover everyone I say I will pray for. Though occasional...

17 July 2016 Proper 11C First Sunday at St. John’s  I am excited to be with you all here this morning. Excited, nervous, blessed, joyful, just a few of the words that describe how I am feeling right now.  This opportunity, to be with you, as priest and fellow follower of Jesus, is a dream come true for me in many ways.  I was very glad also when I saw what the gospel passage for this morning is the classic Martha and Mary story. In some ways this passage was always hard for me to understand. I was the oldest child in my family with two younger brothers, and no sisters. And neither of my brothers were ever going to volunteer in the kitchen... nor were they the types to sit around with guests and listen to them.  The standard interpretation of this passage has to do with contemplation and action... sisters focused on different things. "The two have often been contrasted, contemplation versus action, prayer versus deeds." About whether in our lives we are ...