A Positively Poetic Priest

In the Prologue to her book, Sara Miles writes, "It turned out that the prerequisite for conversion wasn't knowing how to behave in church, or having a religious vocabulary or an a priori "belief" in an abstract set of propositions: It was hunger, the same hunger I'd always carried." I have found in my own experience that people seem to think they have to be good enough to be a Christian or smart enough or have something they think they are lacking. Jesus asks for nothing, except that we believe in Him.  Today is a two question day: What do you think is a requirement for conversion to Christianity? What are you hungry for?

The book starts out with a sense of humor, and a very realistic sense at that! Before the first chapter, before the prologue, the author, Sara Miles  shares a note with all her readers. "To use a religious analogy: This book is not the Bible imagined as inerrant and historically definitive. It's more the Bible I believe in - that is, a human compilation of stories told in different voices, edited and rearranged over many drafts to suggest truths not always fully understood." She starts the book already begging a question from her readers... great engagement!  How do you understand the Bible?

I've been here ten months. Not a huge amount of time, but enough to start learning some basics about each other. If you haven't caught on yet, I'll tell you a secret. I like questions. Good deep questions. Questions that can be looked at and analyzed and pondered. Questions without answers or questions without easy answers. I like questions, and we get two goodies in the passage from Acts today. The feast of the Ascension is always celebrated on the fortieth day of Easter, typically a Thursday, and so we celebrated Ascension Day this past Thursday. The feast of the Ascension celebrates the day on which Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection and appearances in Israel. The story is best told in Acts as we heard it this morning.    The first of the two good questions is from the disciples who are walking along talking to Jesus. The disciples ask Jesus, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" Its such a simple question. Y...

Welcome to the summer virtual book study! The purpose of a summer virtual book study is to take off some of the pressure of a regular book study. You can take this book at your own pace. Another good thing about a virtual book study is that wherever you and your book and your favorite device go, you can participate! I will be posting quotes, questions, stories, pictures, and histories on this blog and on other St. John's social media outlets (check our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram sites). The posts will go Sunday through Friday, with a break on Saturday, throughout the months of June, July, and August. The chapters are short, the reading is interesting, and the stories are real. In August we will have a review, in person, at St. John's during the Formation Hour, 9:00 am. The review is to gather together and think back over the discussions, ideas, thoughts that come out of the book study. I'm sure there will be some really good discussions ahead! If you need to ...

Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 817) For a community to be well, good, and in working order, the members of the community need to be healthy as well.  We tend to talk a lot in the church about wholeness, however we don't always define what we mean by it. Wholeness is a step beyond health or physical well being. Wholeness  means being in harmonious unity, being unbroken and undamaged, means being well in many aspects of one's life. Though we are all at least a little bit broken and damaged, the idea of having wholeness or wellness in many areas of our lives is not as unimaginable as it might seem. As defined by the National Wellness Institute, wellness is a...

5/18/17 Human beings are hardwired for community. We typically live in family groups and we function best with people we know. We feel most comfortable when we know and trust those who are around us. A huge part of what creates that kind of atmosphere is the stories which are shared. One of the reasons religious groups hold together so well through conflict is the shared stories of the Bible and tradition. I would like to offer you a challenge. Now that everyone has their new directory (and if you haven't gotten one yet, there are still some in the church office), I challenge you to reach out to someone new in the next week. (Not someone you haven't talked to in a while, someone you really don't know at all.) Look through the directory, maybe there is a picture or a name that stands out to you as someone you couldn't list three things about.  Through a phone call, an email, reaching out to them before or after the church service, introduce yourself. Talk for a...

Who, what, why, where, when, and how. These are the questions to answer when fully explaining a concept. We have talked about the answers to Who, Why, and Where in regards to the Holy Spirit. Who? The Holy Spirit is a part of God. Why? Because we need help, the Holy Spirit is the one who inspires us on the journey. Where? The Holy Spirit can be found in community.  Today we are going to tackle the what and the when. What does the Holy Spirit do to help us on the journey? We are filled with the Holy Spirit and inspired to follow Jesus. When? All the time. Anytime. Every time. The Holy Spirit is always with us as a guide, inspiration, and help.  So that was easy. I've already answered the questions. But wait, I can see you about to ask me, what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?    In order to answer this question, I'll give you a few examples.  The saints show us plenty of examples of...

In the Episcopal Church we have a structure which consists of a three fold order of ordained ministers: Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. St. John's has great familiarity with bishops and priests. In fact, most of you know our current bishop, +Sean, quite well. I am the fifteenth in St. John's line of full time priests. However, we have just recently gotten our first vocational deacon! This past Sunday, Dave Betz was ordained to the diaconate and appointed to serve St. John's. Deacons are called to serve the church in five specific ways. They are to study the Holy Scriptures, to make Christ known through their work. They are to "interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world." They are to assist during worship services, and to particularly serve the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. (BCP 543) Given these instructions, Deacon Dave will be taking on some new parts in our regular worship services. Specifically, at the 8 am service,...

Today is colloquially known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Every year we celebrate Easter with at least one Sunday discussing the metaphor of sheep. Another metaphor the gospel of John loves is the metaphor of light. Here's a little glimpse into the nature of the relationship between sheep and light from a sheep farmer in Virginia: "One evening just after dark, I was driving my Buick up our gravel driveway. As I rounded the first turn, my headlights illuminated a flock of sheep standing about 20 feet in front of me. One of the evangelical ones must have whispered to her buddies, “Run to the light!” because they all turned and headed straight for the car. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk! One after the other, they plunged headfirst into my front grill and then staggered off to the side to let the others have a turn. I honked the horn, but that just seemed to confuse them more. The sheep sped up, and my car rocked as every ewe threw herself at it. Finally, when they were all sprawled on the edg...

"When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead." John 21:9-14 Jesus' disciples had a hard time believing that Jesus really was alive again. Partly this seems to be because Jesus looks different than he had before. We never find out how, except that Jesus is not always recognized at first. In this story from John, there seems to be some question as to who Jesus was, and this was n...

The Trinity were planning a holiday. The Spirit, manifesting the creative part of the divine nature, was coming up with the ideas. "Let's go to New York," he suggested. "No, no, no," said the Father, "They're all so liberated, they'll spend the whole time calling me 'Mother' and it will just do my head in." So the Spirit sat back and thought. "I know, what about Jerusalem?" he said. "It's beautiful and then there's the history and everything." "No way!" the Son declared. "After what happened the last time, I'm never going there again!" At this point, the Spirit got annoyed and went off in a huff. Sometime later he returned and found that the Father and Son had had a idea they both thought was excellent: "Why don't we go to Rome?" said the Son. "Perfect!" cried the Holy Spirit. "I've never been there before!" Who is the Holy Spirit and why has...