A Positively Poetic Priest

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 8 BCP 230) Unity. It is interesting to me that this prayer for unity always comes the week before Independence Day. It is almost like the Prayer Book compilers were looking at the national calendar and thinking about the problems of our nation. Unity is something we seem to lack most of the time. With all the intensely polemic political debates, social unrest over issues of injustice, oppression of specific groups of people, and simple normal common everyday difficulties with our neighbors, we don't seem to have a lot of unity in our communities. Not only on a national level or civic le...

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday, BCP 228) We could really rename Trinity Sunday to the Feast of the Paradox. How can God be one and three at the same time??? It doesn't make any logical sense. At all. Even all the analogies and metaphors we come up with to try to explain the Trinity fall short of the goal. It is a mystery through and through. Thankfully, just because something is a mysterious paradox, does not mean it cannot be true. We celebrate the Feast of the Trinity precisely because we know it to be true. God is one in three. Father, Son, an...

Now we have come to the end of the Revelation to John of Patmos. (And the end of my sermon series on Revelation. And there was much rejoicing!) We have been witnesses to eternity, we have celebrated with joy, we have been given the gift of salvation, we have been transformed by God, we have seen that God is in all, hope has been stirred within us, and at the end of all things, Jesus gives us the promise of Soon. "See, I am coming soon." "Surely I am coming soon." He says it twice in this passage. Perhaps because Christianity has become a bit jaded in the two thousand years since John's vision, We have lost most of that urgency. We smile ironically at "soon." Soon would have been a few years ago... Uh, Jesus, it's been two thousand years here on earth. That ain't soon. Now Jesus is simply late. And not even fashionably late by human standards. Although, if you do any kind of athletic eve...

There are many different versions of this picture. We have probably all seen one. It is a picture of Christ, made up of the faces of humanity. I encourage you to take a closer look at it. Either now, during the rest of my sermon,  on the way to or from communion, or after the service is over.  In the passage from Revelation today, we are heading towards the end of the book. The apocalypse is over, the battle between good and evil, between the forces of God and the forces of wickedness has been completed. God shares the new holy city of Jerusalem with God at the center of it. God is the light and the source of the water of life. God is at the center of the city and all people walk in God's light and praise God  for all the gifts given. The gates of the city are never shut, symbolizing the safety and security of the city. There are an abundance of trees in the city, symbolizing vitality and growth, reminding us of the Gar...

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday, BCP 227) Breath. Flame. Dove. The color red. Holy Oil. We have lots of symbols for the Holy Spirit in the church. Human beings tend to be rather visual and it can be seen in our proliferation of ways of trying to see the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives. This coming Sunday we will celebrate God's gift of the Holy Spirit with many of these symbols. (Don't forget to wear some red!) Yet, despite our attempts, the Holy Spirit moves and works in our lives in ways we rarely see. Our celebration of the Day of Pentecost is a yearly reminder that the Holy Spirit lives wi...