Luminous Being

O gladsome light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Light in the midst of darkness is a brilliant thing. It does not take too much light to dispel the oppression of darkness. Yet, as the light increases, darkness flees all the more. This darkness does because it has no existence in and of itself; it is merely the absence of light. Light, on the other hand, is. And as Jesus is the Light of God coming into the World, He slowly, steadily, and faithfully dispels the darkness.

Throughout the Tradition of the Church we encounter other luminaries, saints who have been ignited by the love of Christ and have carried that light forward wherever they might be. Today, 13 Dec, is the feast of St. Lucy. She was born in the late third century and was martyred for her faith at the young age of twenty because she would not worship the emperor. Being a virgin, she was sentenced to be defiled in a brothel. As the tradition goes, soldiers could not remove her from where she was. So they piled up wood to burn her where she stood. As the fire would not ignite, they resorted to piercing her with the sword.

Why does the Church remember and hold feast days for such tragic stories such as Lucy's? They remind us that we are not alone as we sojourn in this life. We also are meant to draw encouragement from their lives, their faithfulness in the midst of strife and persecution. Yes we draw encouragement from Jesus and we know that He is with us always. We also draw encouragement from the stories of other humans, other shining lights of Christ that dot the landscape of time. You also are one of those luminous beings, burning with the oil of gladness, enlivened by the love of Jesus. Let the light of your life and faith burn brightly, full of truth, compassion, and love.

Grace & Peace

Tomorrow, I Come

The light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
– John 1:5

The season of Advent is the season of reckoning with the darkness. It is a time to take stock of the darkness of the world, not shying away from what we might see. Peering into the darkness, we not only look into the darkness "out there," outside of ourselves. We also take stock of the darkness within, the internal dragons we face. But Advent does not stop here. It is not a time only to say "welp, it's a rather grim scene." Advent is a time spent longing for the Light to pierce into the darkness, pierce through it, and in fact pierce the darkness itself. In John's Gospel the human race is given the Good News that the Light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. That is, the darkness has not won the day, nor will it ever. (Thanks be to God.)

As we move through this Advent season, we will have an opportunity in the Longest Night & O Antiphons service to reckon with the darkness of the world and the Light of Christ that defeats that darkness. This service–it will be held on 20 Dec, instead of 21 Dec due to building availability–begins with ample time of quiet and individual prayer wherein we are invited to lament and grieve those things we need to lament and grieve. Often our culture does not afford us the time and space to do so. The second movement of this service follows that line from John's Gospel, the Light shining in the darkness. This is captured in the O Antiphons portion of the service. The O Antiphons are short prayers that are traditionally prayed at Evening Prayer in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. They are the basis for the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Each stanza from that hymn is one of the antiphonal prayers. The creative beauty of the prayers is that, as the Church would pray them in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, the titles given to Christ create an acronym in reverse order. O Sapientia (Wisdom); O Adonai (Lord); O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse); etc. The first letter of each of these titles spells out the Latin phrase Ero cras, meaning Tomorrow, I come. This is the hope of the world, the Light that shines in the darkness.

The darkness we face is real and there is no sense denying that. The Light who is Jesus, however, is far greater. May our hearts be warmed by His eternal goodness and love.

Giving Thanks In The Dark

For some time I have been meaning to read my way through Wendell Berry's Port William series again. So I picked up Hannah Coulter. It is a novel in which Hannah, now an elderly woman, shares her memories of loss and love. It is, as she says, "my story, my giving of thanks." How timely, I thought, given the recent national holiday. 

For some, giving thanks is an easier task; easier because of one's lot in life and/or easier because of one's disposition. For others, we may find ourselves unsure of how to proceed in giving thanks due to some difficulty or tragedy. Is it OK to give thanks even in the midst of grief? Does that shortchange sorrow? "In every thing give thanks," St. Paul tells us, but how can we? Hannah Coulter, the aged widow, provides us wise counsel: "From the time I was a girl I have never been far from [grief]. But grief is not a force and has no power to hold. You only bear it. Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery."

The persistent presence of love–Divine Love–is the means of giving thanks, even when life is dark. We now enter into the season of Advent, the season of entering into the dark. Christmas is still a ways off. For now, we take a hard look at the world–ourselves as well–that we might come to our senses, reckoning that only God can save us. So we look off into the distance and wait.

Approaching The END

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also.
John 14:3

Rather than looking to our calendars, we look to the Church to tell us what time it is. She tells us we approach the end of the year; Christ the King Sunday approaches. With it we are reminded that there is an end to things, a closure that births a new beginning. At times this can feel like we are merely running in circles. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes certainly felt that vicious cyclical movement, at least as pertains to all things "under the sun." And if this were all there is to life–we are merely hamsters running on a hamster wheel, going fast to nowhere–we would all be pitied. We even hear the pessimistic–some call it realist–adage "all good things must come to an end." And from our real, though limited, vantage point of life, that may appear to be the case. Appearances, however, as we know, can be and often are deceiving. This is why we need to hear from Another who has a greater vantage point, one that is "above the sun," who resides in the heavenly places. And more than merely being a spatial description–as if He were only above us,–it is at the same time a temporal description. All time is now for the Lord. I AM that I AM declared the Lord to Moses.

Looking to Holy Scripture we find that we ought to amend the "realist" adage. "All good things must come to The End," is the biblical proclamation. And that End is Jesus. We are not running in circles in wild desperation to nowhere; we are pilgrims on a journey that has an End in sight. As we approach the end of the year, may it be a lesson in following Jesus: we approach the end that we might embrace the End. Put another way around: the end of the year reminds us that one day, by the grace of God, we will be Home.

Grace & Peace,

– Fr. Matthew

Only One King

We have no king but Caesar.
John 19:15

There stooped the King of kings and Lord of lords. Rejected by His own people, those He came to save. Rather than acknowledging Jesus as the King, they hitched their wagon to kings of the earth. This was not new for God's people. It goes back to Israel's first demand for a king. There, in 1 Samuel 8, we hear the cry of the people before the prophet Samuel, through whom the Lord had led His people: "...there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations." (v20) Moments earlier we heard Samuel grieving over Israel's demand for a king, at which the Lord clarified whom they reject: "...they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them." (v7)

What ancient Israel and their descendants, the Jews, reveal is simply the heart of humanity. Often we look to rulers of this world to be our savior, our redeemer, maybe even our friend. It is rather easy to get caught up in the fervor of the moment and, by our speech and our actions, we forget Whose we are, to which Kingdom we belong, and we forget our King.

I write these things, as you most likely have already inferred, because we as a nation near the edge of another presidential election. Regardless of how you might participate in this election, first and foremost keep in your mind and heart: you have but one King, Jesus Christ. Whatever transpires in our nation in the coming days and weeks, it does not impinge upon the King of heaven, for His kingdom, and His alone, has no end.

"I heard every creature," says John the Seer, "in heaven and on earth, and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.'" (Rev 5:13) Join in that heavenly chorus, by word and by deed, even while you live here on earth. Jesus reigns. Let all the earth rejoice.

Extreme Devotion

All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy [God], are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period [of time]. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them.
– The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

In this latest letter to Wormwood, Screwtape notes the cultural moment and encourages Wormwood to exploit it. At times, the cultural moment is one wherein society is lulled to sleep by a variety of methods. Wealth is often a contributing factor to a society being lulled to sleep. The other side of the spectrum is extreme devotion, primarily to some cause or faction. As one becomes more entrenched in their own ideals, they become more skeptical and outspoken against the “other.” Thus a rift is created, an ever-widening chasm into which the entire world, it might seem, will thrust itself headlong. Yet, as Lewis often has Screwtape do, he places his finger on the one thing that Satan despises, which is the one thing the Church is to take up: extreme devotion to [God].

I am not that big of a fan of our cultural moment wherein heightened emphasis is placed on being extreme. This is applied to all aspects of life and depicted on social media. (Of course, we only see one side of a person’s life on social media and thus we are not given the whole picture.) Living from extreme to extreme burns a person out and burns them up. You can only sustain that level of intensity for so long. The glory of a mountain-top, and a mountain-top experience, is only seen because it stands in stark contrast the (beautiful) normalcy of most of life. If everything is a mountain-top experience, then nothing is. And we are only driven from emotion to emotion.

So, if we were to take up extreme devotion to God, this is how I would envision it. Let your extreme devotion be like the simplicity of Mary who replied to the angel Gabriel: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) And let the simplicity of your extreme devotion take up her song, the Magnificat, which the Church sings each evening in Evening Prayer. Let your extreme devotion to God be simple like that of Simeon and Anna, who faithful and prayerfully awaited the consolation of Israel, the redemption of Jerusalem in the promised Messiah. (Lk 2:25ff). Let your extreme devotion to God be simple as you take up the teachings of Jesus in the Beautitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God... (Mt 5:2ff) Let your extreme devotion to God be simple as your life is marked by the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience… (Gal 5:22-23).

Such ways of living may certainly seem extreme in a manner of speaking, for they are not of earth; they are of God and as such they are divine in origin. And so they may appear to be extreme in the eyes of the world, maybe even in the eyes of the Church. But let not the extremity be due to the intensity by which you perform such things. Rather, may your “extreme” devotion to God be seen in the simple, faithful, daily act of dying to yourself and living unto the Lord.

Daily Cross, Daily Bread

Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemy’s [God’s] will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him–the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is to say, ‘ Thy will be done,’ and for the daily task of bearing this that the daily bread will be provided. It is your [Wormwood] business to see that the patient never thinks of the present fear as his appointed cross, but only of the things he is afraid of.
– The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

If we only ever focus on the things of which we are afraid, and continue to spiral in our fear of those things, we will get nowhere. And we will get there rather quickly. Anxiety is the gasoline that is liberally dumped onto the fire of our fear. And the one doing the dumping is the devil. This does not mean that our fears and anxieties are only a spiritual issue. We are body and soul; what affects the one affects the other. So there are physiological and neurological factors that play into and on our anxieties and fears. (I say this as one who has known firsthand what anxiety feels like, even when it opens the floodgates to panic attacks.) Yet, we are not to so over-psychologize our humanity that we set aside our souls.

When we spend our energy on fleeing in all manner of directions away from that which we fear, we are harried by the devil. This is the end towards which Screwtape encourages Wormwood: your business to see that the patient never thinks of the present fear as his appointed cross, but only of the things he is afraid of. As Lewis so deftly writes in this book, we as Christians are to take up the opposite counsel of Screwtape. We are to accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him [us]–the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is [we are] to say, ‘ Thy will be done.’ And that, of course, can feel like we are just giving up or giving in. Rather, in saying Thy will be done we are giving up our fear and anxiety to the Lord. Is this not the very thing Jesus did in the Garden in Gethsemane: Yet not my will, but your will be done. Jesus does not say in this phrase that his pain and suffering and fear and anxiety do not matter. Rather, they matter so much that he gives them up to the only One who can do a thing about it. Moreover, he gives them up to the One who desires to do anything about it. And so Jesus takes up his cross. His instruction to those who follow him–his Body, the Church–is to do the same: if any would follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Jesus knows the weight of the Cross; he knows the weight of your cross. As God is love, he does not leave you to bear your cross alone. He provides you sustenance for the daily cross: daily Bread. Note the daily aspect of this. We can easily get too ahead of ourselves which heightens fears and anxieties. The Lord calls our attention to 24hr increments; one revolution of the earth on its axis. There are enough worries in that span of time. And there is enough Bread to go around to sustain you in that span of time. The Bread of which we speak is Jesus. He gives himself to his people through the Holy Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit in prayer, and through the Holy Eucharist.

As you encounter fears and anxieties, consider that they might be the cross you are to bear for that day. And, and, let that drive you to ask for our daily Bread: Lord evermore give us this Bread. (Jn 6:34)

Contented Worldliness

…how disastrous for us [demons] is the continual remembrance of death which war enforces. One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless. In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever.
– The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

It would seem that one of, if not the greatest, disruptions in pursuing holiness is the tragedy of war. Certainly war is tragic, and Lord knows the world has seen too much of it already. (I fear that we have not seen the last of it; Christ have mercy.) That said, Screwtape has a different take on what disrupt one’s pursuit of holiness: contented worldliness. And if our world has had too much of war, it (especially the Western world) has far greater problems when it comes to contented worldliness. In wartime, as Screwtape notes, not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever. By “live forever,” he refers to life in this world. Wartime makes clear that an end comes for us all. It is the staccato in a piece of music. The blast of seven trumpets. It is the exclamation point in a sentence. It is the lament of a mother for her Son.

The gristle of war stands in sharp relief to the creature comforts of an easy life. If ever there were an opium of the masses, contented worldliness just might be it. It lulls us to sleep, even the Church. And this is precisely what Screwtape (a fictitious character), and the Devil (who is very much real), desires. For, when we are contented with the world–indeed when we lay up our treasures here in earthen jars–we turn our eyes away from the Lord. We no longer follow the example of the maiden who looks to the hand of her mistress for provision. We look rather to our pleasant life and conclude life isn’t all that bad. And we ever so softly and slowly drift into a numbed existence.

The problem in all of this is that we are looking for contentment in all the wrong places. As all things of this world will eventually expire,–they will be rolled up like a garment and taken away–to look for contentment in the things of this world is to seek for satisfaction in things that are temporary. We place the weight of our souls on that which cannot possibly sustain us. The pursuit of holiness, when it comes to contentment, is to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Col 3:2) It is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. All else will be added unto us. (Mt 6:33) It is to seek the face of God. (Ps 27:8)

In all of this note that finding contentment in God and not the things of this world does not necessitate that one must become as poor as possible. It might be that you ought to give more of your material possessions away. But poverty of possessions does not necessarily equate to poverty of soul. Rather, when it comes to contentment, pursuing holiness means that the Lord is your first love.

The things of this world may be deemed good, but that is only because they come from our good God. They are meant not to replace, but to lead us to Him.

The Posture of Prayer

At the very least, they [humans] can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you [Wormwood] must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls…Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling.
– The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

In this latest dispatch to Wormwood, Screwtape advises him how to disrupt the Christian’s communion with God, which we ought to call prayer. Wormwood is to persuade the Christian that the body and posture does not really matter. For the Faith is only a “spiritual” thing. This way of thinking, prevalent in our own time, divides the human being in two, often with the assumption that the really real “you” is the immaterial, the “spiritual,” the intellect. The body seems to then be only the casing, the wrapper, of our true selves. Such way of thinking runs deep in the world and also the Church. It also dovetails into the supposed desire of being “authentic.” What this typically means is, “only if/when I feel a certain way will I participate. For, to do otherwise, would not be true to myself.” But that is like a young child determining that he will not walk until he feels like learning the art of it. Of course, unless the child begin with baby steps–stumbling, falling, getting back up and falling again–he will never be able to walk to a friend’s house, run to the aid of another, ascend the heights of mountains beautiful. “Be true to yourself” be damned. (I mean that in the most godliest of senses.) Rather, much to the horror of Screwtape, we ought to begin inhabiting the bodily practices that mirror the spiritual habits. For, whatever [our] bodies do affects [our] souls. This is why our Eucharistic life–worship, prayer–involves so much of our bodies, for we are embodied souls. What affects the soul affects the body and vice versa. And since it is far easier to move the body that we might move the soul, let us begin where we can. In the Anglican tradition we stand to praise, the erectness of our bodies demonstrating the upwardness of our praise to our God who is in heaven. We sit to listen, which is a posture of a student to a teacher. We do not “stand” in authority over Holy Scripture; we sit in submission to it. Lastly, we kneel to pray, for kneeling is the posture of humble petition and request.

Screwtape also advises Wormwood that he is to have the Christian man estimate the value of each prayer by [his] success in producing the desired feeling. In other words, prayer “works” if I “feel” it working. Of course, how one measures if one feels enough, or feels rightly, is entirely subjective. Our feelings are also subjected to being tossed to and fro, carried about by a variety of winds that blow about us. If/when we place virtue and efficacy of our prayers on how we feel at that moment, we inadvertently cripple ourselves by the very act by which we are meant to be drawn deeper into rest in God. We also end up attempting to accomplish by our own strength the things for which we pray. “When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave,” advises Screwtape. And this way of thinking makes sense, if we need to hype ourselves and God up that he might give notice. This is like the prophets of Baal (1Kings 18) who danced around their altar, slashed and cut themselves, shouted and cried out in hopes that Baal would hear them. Elijah even derides them saying that they need to shout louder, just in case Baal is on the toilet. Yet with Elijah, there is no pomp and circumstance. The “efficacy” of his prayer is not bound to his performance nor how much he might feel his prayer working. Rather, “at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah came near and said, ‘Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel…’” Simple words, offered unto God with a posture of body that reflects the posture of the soul. This is a reason why there is such goodness in praying the Psalms, praying the Collects, and other composed prayers. Though they are written prayers, there is a simplicity to them, a deep richness and beauty in their theology, and they can help teach us that our attention is not to be placed on producing the desire affects of our prayers. Our attention, our gaze, is to be trained on the God who loves us.

Not Taking Offense

Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken. – The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

The “habit,” of which Wormwood speaks, is that of having an “over-sensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention.” To state it differently, it is to always assume innocence in the words and tone “I” use, and at the same time always assume malice and intent to harm in the words and speech of any other. This habit, once it has taken root,–worse still when it has begun to sprout in the heart–supposedly hears the “real” meaning through the words being said, and those left unsaid. An example. Let’s call her Mary and him Steve. At the dinner table, Steve might be asked, please pass the salt. But his heart, which has taken on this habit “hears” Mary say instead, you knew that I have had a long day. More than that, I worked hard on this meal. The least thing that you could do, Steve, is to think of me and so place the salt where it is easy to reach. In fact, you could have even offered it to me before I asked. Is that too much to ask? And so, Steve hears in Mary’s tone a grumble, a complaint, a hint of dissatisfaction, annoyance, and irritation. Of course, in all of this, Mary simply wanted the salt and so she asked for it.

The reason these types of circumstances arise–and we have all experienced something like them to a certain degree–is because love is lacking. For, to presume Mary’s intent as Steve does–to have this habit established–is only the working out of a lack of love. It may even be the case that Steve, in some way, is animated by hatred toward Mary, though not in the fullest and most cruel sense of the word. For what else can explain why he would willingly presume negatively on her when so simple a request–please pass the salt–was made? (Certainly, in other situations, “Mary” may speak out of hatred towards Steve. And so, in such circumstances, she is trying to communicate her irritation, if not disdain, for “Steve,” all the while not saying it outright. But that is not the scenario we consider here.)

Holy living, when it comes to our speech and our listening, sprouts forth out of the love God has for us. And from this soil of divine love grows our love for others. This means that as those who speak, we are able–and ought–to say words of blessing and encouragement to others and be honest with our intentions. We also are able to say things that are true, and at times hard for others to receive, all the while there being no animus in our heart. Do you think Jesus hated the woman caught in adultery when he said Go and sin no more? (Jn 8) Was it not, rather, love at work, naming her actions as sin and forgiving her all the same? So, holy living regarding our speech, sets out to speak the truth having first loved the other.

Holy living, when it comes to our listening to others, does not seek to be offended by others, fabricating false intentions in order for the listener to lash out in return. Rather, holy living regarding our listening is patient. It gives room to the one speaking. It desires to hear from the other. And, when words are spoken which can be taken either negatively or positively, it presumes–its first and immediate inclination is–to side with the positive interpretation of the words. In the case of Mary and Steve, Steve would have simply assumed that all Mary wanted was the salt. Period. No ulterior motive. No encoded message to decipher. While this little scenario with Mary and Steve and the salt may seem rather innocuous, the habits of the heart are shaped in deep ways by such small, and seemingly insignificant, experiences, just as a river carves its way deep into the rock only by its simple, persistent trickle.

So, rather than saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken, as Screwtape encourages Wormwood, instill in your hearts, through habit, a holy love of one another, that we might speak truthfully and listen with humility.

Addressing Disappointment

“In every department of life [disappointment] marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. [God] takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His ‘free’ lovers and servants–‘sons’ is the word He uses...” – The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

Screwtape urges his nephew, Wormwood, to heighten the man’s [over whom Wormwood is charged] disappointment in the Christian faith. It does not matter really what the disappoint is over, but the focus is to be placed on the incongruence of the initial dreamy aspirations which have given way to the “laborious doing.” (We might call this “laborious doing” the persevering in the faith. The long obedience in the same direction.) The temptation is for Wormwood to insinuate that the incongruence–the disappointment–is a sign that this Christian life is not really worth it.

As humans, we all face disappointments of various kinds. We all have dreamy aspirations of one sort which, at some point, give way to the harder, yet still good, work of perseverance through the disappointment. When it comes to the Christian life, maybe one’s aspirations were that life would get easier; or that all–or at least most–of life’s problems would be sorted out. Maybe one has assumed that quite quickly after coming into the Faith, all affection for sin would immediately stop. So, when such things are not one’s immediate reality, disappointment creeps in. It can be exasperated all the more when one becomes aware that, to make headway in these areas of life, there is a “laborious doing” in which one needs to engage. A putting the hand to the plow. Or as St. Paul has said: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” (Rom 6:13)

Why, we might ask, does God not simply snap his fingers together–or whatever the divine equivalent might be–and simply do away with all disordered affections? For certainly if that was how God ran things, there would be little if any risk of one walking away from the Faith. Screwtape instructs us: “[God] takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His ‘free’ lovers and servants–‘sons’ is the word He uses...” For our good and to the glory of God, he desires relationships with those who have received the blessing of being made in his image. And, so that this may be an honest and loving relationship–not an abusive one–the Lord desires “free lovers.” Disappointment, when left unchecked, can wreak havoc in this relationship. And, to make clear that the Lord is no prude, one simply needs to read–and ought to pray–the Psalms. They are chock-full of one’s disappointment. That disappointment is, at times, directed at God. But, they also shine a light forward: disappointment gives way to faith, hope, and love, just as the darkness of night gives way to the dawn of the morning. Or, in the words of Screwtape, the Psalms provide us a way to move from the initial dreamy aspirations into and through the laborious doing of the Faith.

Jesus, the true human, also leads us in this way. “Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Hb 12:2-3) When disappointments surface, those unmet expectations and aspirations, look to the Psalms and take up their prayers. For they are given to the Church to lead her through the darkness. And, when disappointments surface, look to Jesus. For he, too, as man, faced disappointments of many kinds. And he persevered through them by the aid and grace of the Holy Spirit.

Pursuing Real Life

"Your business," says Screwtape to Wormwood, "is to fix his attention on the stream [of immediate sense experiences.] Teach him to call it 'real life' and don't let him ask what he means by 'real.'"
–The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

This is the great temptation that we see in the garden in Eden: that humanity might pursue the "sensible" things of this world–what can be experienced by the senses,–considering and coming to believe that they are the truly real realities. This, in turn, shifts our focus away from God, and the greater heavenly realities. With our eyes fixed on the things of this world, we loose our taste for heavenly things. We become accustomed to life here on earth, as if it were the only thing that is really real. Such a way of life breeds anxiety, hopelessness, and can give way to licentiousness: eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die. When the things of this world hold sway in our hearts, we set aside truth. We also distance ourselves from the life God has secured for us in Jesus Christ. We begin to forget his ways. More than that, we may begin to view his ways as a stumbling block, a disruption, to true and real life. As we have so many "sensible" things and experiences at our disposal, Screwtape's words are all the more pressing for us. We have so much that we can set before our eyes, as it were, just as Israel had the golden calf set before her eyes and heard proclaimed: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4)

In light of these temptations which are depicted for us by Screwtape, how are we to learn holy living? We are to take up the Holy Spirit's leading through the words of St. Paul: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Col 3:1–2) This we are to do by being diligent in prayer, attending to weekly Eucharistic worship, caring for the needs of others. As we listen to the Lord through the Holy Scriptures, we are to take them by faith, entrusting that the Lord reveals to us to true things of heaven, the greater heavenly reality.

What might this look like? It could look like taking up Jesus' Comfortable Words in Mt 11: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." His words mean that there is rest he provides to us, rest that is from above, that may be given and experienced, even in the midst of trial and suffering. There is the encouragement–and instruction–to bring all things that are burdensome to you and place them before the Lord, knowing that he loves you enough to bear your burdens for you. There is also the recognition that you are not able to "go it alone." In fact, you were not made to be an independent being; you were made for God, to find your joy, love, rest, and life by being (and deepening) your relationship in him.

Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Let us not fall prey to the temptations of the devil to set our minds on the sensible things of the earth.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+

The One The World Needs

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel…and come and save us.
Psalm 80:1, 2

An Advent psalm to be sure, Psalm 80: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel…and come and save us. Advent begins this coming Sunday and with it the Church begins her new year which begins in the dark of this world. She begins where she is always to be found: in prayerful expectation for the Lord to come. His desired coming is not only because she–we as Christians–long for our God that we might be with him in a deeper and more real way, just as an infant is with its parents in a deeper and lives more fully in this world once it is born. We not only long for this, we also long for the ending of all wars; for the ending of all homelessness; for the ending of Death in all its manifestations–the death of Death;–for the ending of Satan and all his hordes. But if God be not the one who will do this–and far more than we can ask or imagine–then who?

If history will teach us one thing–and if we will have ears to listen to that lesson–it is that humanity, and all creation, cannot and will not accomplish this. One response to this is certainly to deny the reality of any real difficulties, to view them as merely bumps along the road of progress. Yet, how is such a view loving? How is such a view just? Another response might be that we should place all our hopes on humanity and the human spirit. But that is precisely the problem: the human spirit. The way forward, for the Church and for the World, is that God must come to us, to our world (once again) to save us. But why, some might ask, should all turn to Christ and the Christian God? Why not other religions? It is only the Church–Christians–who proclaim to goodness of God’s Gospel which he proclaims in his Holy Scriptures: he has come before; he has taken on our flesh in the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus; he has washed us that we might be clean. And all who will turn to him he will make clean. It is only the Church who proclaims what God has promised: he will come again and will make all things new. These are not the ideas of humans of the first century world; they are the truths of the eternal God. Extravagant truths to be sure. Grace, for certain.

So as we enter into this Advent season, may we renew our hope, not in our own efforts, Resolutions, or the human spirit. May we renew our hope in God, the Great Shepherd of his sheep, that he will come; that he will save.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+

Like the Fading Grass

Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers. For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good.
Psalm 37:1-3a

It is hard at times to believe words like these, for the permanence of the evildoers and wrongdoers seems all but assured in our world. It is they who have more than they need, who amass larger and larger barns for their goods–to draw from one story Jesus told. It is they who wield power on a global scale, shaping the lives of far too many people whom they will never know. It is they who afflict the weary and the poor, oppressing and trafficking the youngest of us. It can be rather frightening to realize the control they have, which seems as if it will endure forever, world without end.

Noticing the prominence that such people have in our world, it is also difficult at times not to become jealous of them, not to envy their situation in life. For they have it "made," by which we typically mean they appear to have all that I could ever want: be that riches, fame, recognition, health, power, (or you fill in the blank). The allure of jealousy is palpable and runs deep, for it touches the nerve of desire, seeking to draw our attention to those things which we do not have and coercing us to conclude that we are the poorer for it.

And yet, for all the prestige of this world that is set before their feet, the Lord says that the seeming permanence of the evildoers is like grass which fades with the coming sun, like green herbs that wither in the heat of the day. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we see this withering and fading every summer when the dry season comes upon us. Our once green and lush yards turn to hardened ground and yellowed stubble. When we see such things, we are to see the spiritual lesson contained therein, the spiritual lesson that the psalmist teaches us in Psalm 37. For all the glory that the grass once held, it is now dried and shriveled; for all the glory that evildoers now hold, they will whither, they will fade. To cast our lot with the evildoers is to cast our lot with death.

We find ourselves in a time of waiting, waiting for the Lord to come again to judge the living and the dead. In our waiting, we should not be lounging on the couch, TV dinner in hand–if they are still a thing–biding our time. Rather we are to be like the wise virgins who awaited the coming of the groom with expectation and preparation and love. (Mt 25) We are to be found trusting the Lord and his Word, for he always and only speaks the truth in love. We are to be found "doing good" in this season, for the blessing of others, for the sake of our souls, for the honor and glory of God. May these words of the psalmist be always before us: trust in the Lord and do good. A simple life, a pleasing life. The life of Jesus.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+

Rest

It is good to be back from vacation and vacation was a good time of rest. I was reminded of how necessary rest is. Our physical bodies remind us of this every 24 hours. (I suppose it is less than 24hrs.) And while some of us may be irritated–or even rail against this reality–it is part of our existence. That our physical bodies require rest should also remind us that our spiritual selves also need rest. Rest from the noise of the world; rest from distractions; rest for God.

Indeed it is rest that the Lord promises to his own: It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep (Ps 127:2). And there is the eschatological rest–the rest at the end of all things; rest with God–promised in Hebrews: For if Joshua had given them [Israel] rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (Hb 4:8-10).

As we navigate and journey through this life, we are to see rest for what it is: a preparation, a foretaste, an appetizer. It is good for us to rest well. At times our busy schedules do not allow copious hours for rest. Well enough. Let us at least carve out sixty seconds to pray the Lord's Prayer, pray a psalm, meditate on a well-known portion of Scripture. For in so doing we halt the traffic of our lives for a moment to allow the motorcade of God to pass through. And maybe, hopefully, as he does pass by in those moments, we might catch a glimpse of him. What a sight.

Grace & Peace

The Good Zeal of [Christians]

As the feast of St. Benedict was observed this week–11 July–it seemed fitting to hear a little from his Rule which was composed ~530AD. Though it was written as instruction for how a monastery and the brothers are to live together, much of what he says applies to us all. Below is the chapter entitled The Good Zeal of Monks. We might amend that, as we are not monks, to The Good Zeal of Christians. (A few slight edits were made.)

Just as there is a wicked zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good zeal which separates from evil and leads to God and everlasting life. This, then, is the good zeal which [Christians] must foster with fervent love: They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other (Rom 12:10), supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. To their fellow [Christians] they show the pure love of brothers [and sisters]; to God, loving fear. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.

Numbering Time

Teach us to number our days, that we might get a heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12

This Psalm–a prayer of Moses, the man of God–speaks of time, something that many of us might acknowledge its presence when we feel it strained. We may also find ourselves pushed and pulled by time–read "our schedules,"–not being so much mindfully engaged, but simply following the course carved out for us. With respect to time and God, we hear in this psalm: "from everlasting to everlasting, you are God; a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past." That is not our experience as humans. Seventy years, maybe a decade or two more, is the max for us.

If we are to number our days, it at least means that we are mindful of them and the inevitable day when we will return to the dust. Why then do we pray that the Lord would teach us to number our days? It is so we might know what life is for and so pursue it; "to get a heart of wisdom." As we are made for the Lord–in him we live, and move, and have our being,– to number our days is to reckon with our allotted time: how we might use it; how we might "spend" it. For what we spend it on is clearly of value to us. By spending time on something, we proclaim it is of value, for we spend the one thing which we can never acquire more of it.

So if i were to number my days, reckon with how much time I have, where should I allocate it? What responsibilities are rightfully mine that I should spend my time there? What habits or practices need to diminish–I must diminish those things; they do not magically disappear–to make room for more life-giving uses of time?

Reckoning with the relatively short amount of time I have, should also lead us more deeply into the Christian virtues of humility and faith. The time that the Lord has given us is enough.

O Lord, teach us to number our days, that we might get a heart of wisdom.

A Common Cup for a Communing People

Throughout the life of the Church catholic, the people of God have celebrated the Eucharistic feast by receiving wine from a common cup. That is, all receiving wine would drink from the same cup. The common cup is not mandated in Scripture, but it is part of the tradition of the Church. It captures the unity that we are living out as all those who come to the Father through Jesus his Son. St. Augustine reminds us in a sermon he preached on Pentecost Remember, friends, how wine is made. Individual grapes hang together in a bunch, but the juice from them all is mingled to become a single brew. This is the image chosen by Christ our Lord to show how, at his own table, the mystery of our unity and peace is solemnly consecrated. How we do things communicates what we believe (and think) is actually taking place. How we do things shapes and forms us in good and healthy ways; it can also form us in unhealthy ways.

On Pentecost Sunday (28 May) we will begin offering the common cup. We will continue to offer a cup for intinction (dipping the bread into the wine) if that is preferable for some. You may be thinking "doesn't this shift us away from a common cup, because right now we use only one cup for intinction." Fair question. Let me respond this way. As the Eucharist is one of the two sacraments–the other being baptism–the outward sign of the sacrament is significant to the invisible, spiritual grace received. There is something to be said about receiving a draft of wine and what it communicates about the inward, spiritual grace you also experience. We do not receive more of Jesus, if we consume more wine. But we experience the sacrament in a different way, one that I think can be helpful to us as a community.

One is not more spiritual than the other. If you are concerned about health issues–(e.g. won't drinking from a common cup spread diseases more easily?)–there has been plenty of research done on the transmissibility, or lack thereof, of diseases via the common cup. So far the research indicates there is little, if anything, to be concerned about. Thankfully the parish council has weighed in on this issue and are also supportive of (re)introducing the common cup. I am grateful for their leadership, thoughts, and encouragement. As always, let us keep the main thing the main thing. As we come together as the people of God, to the Table of our Lord, we do not come as individuals; we come as a redeemed people whom Christ has joined together in his body (the Church) and by his body (on the Cross). Thanks be to God.

A Thanks–giving People

Give thanks to the God of heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever. – Psalm 136:26

Well Emmanuel, it is good to be back home and I look forward to worshipping with you all in a few short days. Thank you for your prayers while I was away in Rwanda. Needless to say, there were so many good experiences, connections, and thoughts that took place while spending time with over 1300 Anglicans coming from over fifty countries. Again, thank you.

Yesterday morning, I was praying through Psalm 136. One feature of this psalm is the refrain for his steadfast love endures forever. We are called to give thanks to the Lord, and then we are given reason after reason to give thanks, often noting his mighty acts of salvation. [Just as an aside, I wonder what your version of this psalm would look like? Perhaps give it a try, listing all the mighty acts of God's salvation and care in your life, each one followed by the refrain for his steadfast love endures forever.]

Often it is relatively easy to give thanks to the Lord when life is going well, when our relationships are in order and harmony, when we have enough (and most likely a surplus), and on and on that list goes. But this psalm begins and ends, not with the things the Lord has done for us, and therefore we give thanks. Rather it begins and ends–like bookends–with the character of God: his steadfast love endures forever. This is the reason to always give thanks to the Lord. And as we are always to be maturing, growing, being transformed more into the likeness of Jesus, giving thanks to the Lord, especially in times of difficulty or when we don't feel like it, is all the more formative and transformative. We might even say it's redemptive.

To live a life of always giving thanks to the Lord does not dismiss the trials of our lives. But it does set them in perspective. For, as the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever, evil, sorrow, sadness, and their ilk will pass away. Let us join our voices and lives with the saints and give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+

Why Will You Die?

As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live;
turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
– Ezekiel 33:11

At our annual parish gathering last Sunday evening–thank you to all who could attend and took part in our chili cook-off–I mentioned that a focus for this year is extending the Gospel to those who have yet to know the love of God, receive his forgiveness of their sins, to be reconciled to him through grace by faith, and to live in the power and care of the Spirit. Though that work may sound daunting, if you are reading this there is a good chance that such work has been wrought in your life, and the Lord graciously continues that work in us all. This he does for the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. We also heard of the Lord's heart last week from John 3:16: for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

As this is the heart and mission of God, it is to be the heart and mission of his people, the Body of Christ. As we are among the people of God, it is to be our heart and our mission as well. Can we change the human heart? No, that is the work of the Spirit. But we can–and should–be living witnesses of the work the Lord has done and continues to do in our own lives. Perishing is not the only way things can end. There is another way, a way the Lord desires, and a way that he has gone to such great lengths to open to all who might believe.

To this end, I encouraged those at the annual gathering–and encourage you now–to begin by noting three people you know who do not know our Lord. Take those three people and pray for them daily. Pray for their salvation, for their troubles and trials, for their joys. Additionally, share those three people with one other person in the church (and vice versa) that together you might pray for your six people.

O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God.

Grace & Peace

Matthew+