A Positively Poetic Priest

"What is truth?" "Quid est veritas?" Τί ἐστιν ἀλήθεια (Ti estin aletheia)  As Pilate asked Jesus.  Sadly, I think many are trying to figure out the truth right now. Conflicting reports, differing views, facts that are hard to figure out,  political posturing, hidden agendas, it can almost seem like no one is telling the truth! As Pilate asked Jesus so many years ago, maybe in jest or rhetorically, perhaps in earnest, or simple curiosity getting the better of him, we wonder "what is truth?" While Jesus does not answer Pilate on that fateful day, Jesus did speak to his disciples about truth  and quite in depth too. We heard last week, Jesus say in the gospel passage from John,  "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Enigmatic, but important. And this week we hear Jesus say, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, who...

When you go about your daily routine do you do it for yourself or do you do it in Jesus' name? I don't think most of us really actually think about it. We simply do what we feel like we need to do and get on with it. However, when we start our day with prayer, and make an intention to do things in Jesus' name our understanding and perspective on everything we do that day, is different. And pretty much always for the better. We are able to see through Jesus' eyes and heart we are able to respond with Jesus' compassion all of which far surpasses our own abilities. Its amazing that even Christians can forget to claim Jesus' name in their lives. We believe and do good works out of our belief and then we simply go through our day forgetting to acknowledge that Jesus is walking with us. During this time with the Diocesan Partnership, there is an online book study happening on Jim Wallis' book, Christ in Crisis. Which very much seems like the kind of title we need ...

I have been reading and writing a lot lately. There is so much that needs to be said and so much which needs to be heard. We desperately need to listen to each other right now. Also I am in the midst of wedding planning and right now that has consisted of a few pro/con lists. As I was staring at some of the headlines this morning it caught my poetic eye that "Protect" and "Protest" are only one letter apart. We have had an eruption of protesting and protecting and I think some of us are losing sight of the fact that most of us are trying to do both. Protecting by protesting, on both sides. In a bit of poetic fancy, I took those two closely spelled seven letter words and made a Pro/Con List of Hope. Pro List           Con List Project Conceal Profess Concern Protect Conduct   Protest Confute Provoke Condone Propose Confide  Provide Consult  Prosper Console Proudly Confirm 

Week 5 Word Ecclesiastes 9:1 – 10:20 (NRSV) All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them  2 is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.  3 This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.  4 But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.  5 The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost....

Dear St. John's Community, As many of you are, I am also saddened and angered by the outpouring of hate which has happened in our country in the last couple of weeks. People should not be continuing to die because of hateful discrimination. As people of faith, we are called to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with others and God. The actions of many in the last few weeks have been unjustified and tragic. On June 3, 2017 I wrote a newspaper article for The Derrick's Upward View titled, "Diversity is a gift from Holy Spirit." It was published the day before the Day of Pentecost and I was pointing to the scripture passage from Acts 2 we read each year on Pentecost. In the passage, the disciples are all given gifts of speaking in different languages. God did not call one people, one language to follow Jesus. God called all the people of the world to follow Jesus and made that very clear by the Holy Spirit's gifts so the disciples could spread the Gospel t...

Hooray! I have made it through the 50 Acts of Green Challenge. I have had a lot of fun learning more about what it means to care about God's creation and how I can make a difference by what I use. I hope some of this inspired your own journey and research and perhaps you will make some changes in your life to help the environment. Today marks both a movement in the church and in the world as we come to the Day of Pentecost.  I know I will continue to look for small acts of green I can do to help protect and conserve our environment. Franklin has natural beauty surrounding it on all sides and I hope that it will be here for generations to come. It is the people of this area who protect and impact the environment and I think as long as we can see that cause and effect relationship, we will continue to work for the good of all creation. Earlier this season, my fiance bought new tires for his car. While we were discussing the new tires and our logistics for him to be out of his car for...

As I have been doing this research and figuring out what kinds of changes to make, I came across this statistic: 2 billion single-use plastic razors are thrown away each year. Plastic razors are not that large, so they don't take up a huge amount of space, but that is a lot of plastic being thrown away and ending up free in the environment each year. I have never used single use plastic razors, for most of my life I have used Gillette's Venus razors and refilled the heads. I've had the same two handles for quite a long time. However, even the refillable heads are disposable and adding plastic and metal waste to landfills.  So I decided to look into some other options. I researched electric razors and safety razors, as the alternatives to disposable plastic razors. It seems that while electric razors are good in many ways, safety razors come in as the top environmentally friendly option. The handles are usually made of recyclable materials, the blades are recyclable. They do...