A Positively Poetic Priest

I want everyone to take a moment to put yourself in Solomon's feet, God comes to you and says, “Ask what I should give you.” Whoa. The first 'make a wish' moment. We do have this opportunity, we are allowed to tell God what we would like God to give to us many times this is exactly how we use prayer. God, give me a better work situation, help my daughter find a husband, and give Marshall a new arm Oh, and the VBS students all want to be better at Fortnite. Solomon was a little better at thinking through the opportunity he had in conversation with God and asks for an understanding mind, knowledge of good and evil, to be able to govern the people in telling this story we typically say that Solomon asks for wisdom I have a few issues with this story, partially because the Hebrew word for wisdom isn't used when Solomon asks for understanding, though it is used at the end when the story says God gives Solomon a wise and discerning mind, and the story is a total show of patri

  What do you have faith in? Now I know the parables are good today, And I'm not going to talk about them Because one of the most basic things about religion is faith. You can blame St. Paul for today's sermon. All religions require faith. Faith is the belief in things not seen. In some ways, all the ideals we aspire to love, justice, charity, hope they are the bedrock on which any religion is created, including some things we don't think of as religion, but could be construed that way, are things we cannot see. We can't see justice, certainly these days we don't see a lot of evidence for it. We can't see equality or freedom or peace because they are ways of talking about systems in which everyone belongs and feels comfortable being themselves and we know we have not achieved that kind of world. Anyway, without faith, there is no religion no Christianity, no Judaism, no Islam, no Jainism, no pantheism. In the passage from Paul to the Romans, he writes, "Now

Do you know the feeling of planting something? The hopeful feeling of wanting something to grow the slightly scary feeling of knowing that you don't have total control over what is going to happen the awe inspiring feeling of knowing you don't actually know exactly how growth happens? Planting is fraught with emotion. Between last Sunday's sermon and this Sunday's Gospel passage, I found myself compelled to reach out to Grow It Green here in Morristown and spend an afternoon at their Urban Farm. If you don't know Grow It Green, they are a local non-profit farm, managing the community gardens on Early Street, the partner greenhouse at St. Elizabeth's, and the Urban Farm on Hazel Street behind the Lafayette Learning Center preschool. Their mission is "to promote community health through urban agriculture, discovery-based learning and equitable food access. Grow It Green Morristown creates sustainable farms and gardens, and educates communities on healthy eati

It was an intensely sunny, windy, and warm day on Wednesday June 28th in Monterey County, California. I was driving a Nissan Murano up Highway 101, otherwise known as El Camino Real, the royal road, what began as the path taken by the Spanish friars and military between the Missions through Alta California in the late 1700s and early 1800s. I had three sleeping teens listening to Billy Joel and I was going along well... until I realized I missed my exit. As I pulled off the next exit, I found myself stopped behind a white painted school bus towing porta-potties. I was somewhat surprised, and quickly realized I wasn't the only one since my exiting had woken up my passengers and there was quickly conversation about what the bus and porta potty combination was doing. Luckily I was only three miles past the exit I needed, so it was a quick detour through the small town we were in to make it back to the road we needed. Along the way we saw more school buses towing porta potties and comi

  One of the things we do in the Worship Together service is teach the children words for the littlest children, its very basic words, because they are just beginning to talk for the older children, it is teaching them bigger words, Like the special words we use for the cup and plate we use for our meal with Jesus Do you all know what those words are? This is a (chalice) this is a (Paten). Well done. Can you say, conversation? Let me hear you say, conversation. Do you know what a conversation is? Raise your hand, How many of you think you know what a conversation is? Learning how to have a conversation is an important aspect of socialization for children, and adults. Which I know all of you are rolling your eyes and thinking to yourself, "Mother Elizabeth, I'm ...(insert random number, you can be honest with yourself) years old, I know how to have a conversation." Hmmm....  In our recent clergy meeting with the Bishop, she told us  That we need to take the summer time as