A Positively Poetic Priest

  The Holy Spirit acts in diverse community. If you were here last Sunday, you'll know that I was not. Last November, I, in my infinite wisdom, decided that last Sunday I was going to attempt to swim, bike, and run across almost seventy one miles in southern Tennessee and Georgia. Because it seemed like a fun idea. And it was. I completed the Chattanooga Ironman 70.3, a half Ironman triathlon in 7 hours, 30 minutes, and 37 secs. It was quite an achievement. But you know what made it actually fun? All of the family, friends, and strangers who volunteered, raced, cheered before, during, and after the event. The diverse community. I met people from all over. Connected with people so very different than I. I was cheered on and supported by complete strangers I will never see again in my life. I cheered on complete strangers. Its in all the news about how divided the United States is And it is divided in many ways but when I go out and about and last week Jimmy and I were in eight diffe...

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) Christian history has a good number of big moments. However, this coming Sunday we celebrate the second biggest. The coming of the Holy Spirit. The followers of the Way, as followers of Jesus called themselves early on, may have only ended up as a footnote in history if it weren't for Pentecost. All their courage in sharing the Good News in front of rulers and those who threw them in jail came from this moment. Even Jesus' resurrection (the biggest moment in history) didn't quite propel them into the streets proclaiming the story and making disciples, until the H...

Ich habe gute Nachrichten! Tolle Neuigkeiten! Hast du von Jesus gehört? Der Messias ist gekommen! Die, auf die wir gewartet haben! Gott hat unseren Retter gesandt! Gott liebt uns und schickte uns seinen Sohn! Hmm ... du siehst verwirrt aus. Spreche ich die falsche Sprache? ¿Qué tal esto? ¡Tengo buenas noticias! ¡Buenas noticias en realidad! ¿Has oído hablar de Jesús? ¡El Mesías ha venido! ¡El que hemos estado esperando! Dios ha enviado a nuestro salvador! Dios nos ama y nos envió a su hijo! Hmm ... esto todavía no parece correcto. Oh, oh, English... I have good news! Great news actually! Have you heard about Jesus? The Messiah has come!  The one we have been waiting for!  God has sent our savior! God loves us and sent us his son! The good news of Jesus  really makes much more sense  when you hear it in a language you know! That was the amazing thing about the story from Acts. All sorts of ...

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...

I want you to take a look at your hand.  Right or left, it doesn't matter. Every day our hands do impressive amounts of work. They influence our experience of the world. Look at your fingers. You probably don't think about them often. They are very similar in nature to each other, yet each is different.  Each is unique from the others. Even our fingers have diversity! Each of our fingers have different purposes and gifts.  The fact that our thumbs are at an angle and move slightly differently than the other fingers... opposable thumbs!  What a gift our thumbs are in our daily lives! (Especially when you consider animals without opposable thumbs, we have all seen those internet memes.) We may look at our hands and think they are all the same.  In fact, we have diversity right in our hands. The word diversity really means a range of different things. Not that it has a range of different meanings, it quite literally means,...

"O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." (BCP 227) Pentecost was a huge change in the life of the community of Jesus followers. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and changed everything. It opened up the way of Jesus to new people, through the disciples being able to speak new languages. It opened up questions about the place of the Holy Spirit in people's lives with sweeping changes in how the community of Jesus followers saw themselves. It lead the disciples into truths they had never faced before. I love how the prayer for Pentecost above asks that we can rejoice in the 'holy comfort' of the Holy Spirit. Most times when pe...