The Episcopal Church (TEC)

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The folks who brought you Frank Griswold, Gene Robinson, and Katharine Jefferts Schori have changed their name.

The Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) is now known as THE Episcopal Church (TEC).

It provides a good way to delineate between its members.

Those who love the liturgy, organ music, candles, incense, etc. will be called Hi-TEC.

Those who perfer a simpler service of worship will be known as Low-TEC.

Those who leave for whatever reasons will be known as TEC-No.

Those who stay in will be known as TEC-ies.

I trust that this helps settle some of the confusion that has resulted from General Convention 06.

Hack away.

Filed in Humor

Related Tags: The Episcopal Church, ECUSA, Episcopalianism, Humor, TEC, Anglican Communion

Ambushed

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"You know what, I'm gonna walk."

"Are you sure? I'm happy to give you a ride. You're not out of the way at all."

"No, I'm sure. After that great meal and conversation I need to stretch my legs and mull over some of what we talked about."

"OK. It was a pleasure meeting you."

"Yeah, and good meeting you, sir."

Henry passed through the gate at the south end of the circular, cobblestone driveway. He looked right, then left, and crossed the street. The pavement was wet, but it looked like it was done raining for the night. It had been a full evening, but he was not tired.

His desire for some fresh air and time to think was not the only reason Henry declined the ride. He was a bit embarrassed about where he lived. The home he had just come from was very nice. There was a range of wealth represented by the guests, and he was definitely on the low end of that range. He had not felt condescended to during the evening, so there was no evidence that anyone would hold his economic status, or lack thereof, against him. Nevertheless, he did not know these people and thought it just as well to play some of his cards close to the vest.

The night began to replay in Henry's mind. He thought about how he had come to receive an invitation to the dinner. A friend of his employer found out about his activism and suggested that Henry come as his guest. Mr. Watford's friend had been instructed by the host of the get-together to bring along at least one person. Henry was to be that person.

Doddrick Taylor, his employer's friend, was an older man who had made his money in real estate and was heavily involved in funding and overseeing a group of orphanages in Brasil. A number of the orphans had been educated in the States and had returned to Brasil as clergy, lawyers, businessmen, physicians and other potential community leaders. Mr. Taylor's countenance shone with pride when he spoke of "his young friends."

While the host of the meal was unassuming, he also naturally drew the attention of his guests. They enjoyed sharing stories about travel and life in their city. They learned a little about the host's upbringing. He talked to them of his desire to improve the conditions of the city, as well as continuing to support those who were involved in endeavors that extended beyond those limits. Henry was struck by how the host evinced an awareness of both the big picture and the myriad of details involved in his subjects.

Henry was still thinking about the host when he turned onto Gayle Street. He had lived here for a while growing up, moved away, and now, through no long-range planning of his own, he was back. Gayle Street was not in a particularly nice area of the city but it was home. Henry had invested his time in some of the local civic and church-run programs aimed at constructively occupying the time of the teenagers and children who hailed from the neighborhood. His efforts were not always appreciated.

Rod McIlveney had lived on Gayle Street his entire life. He was a bully when Henry was growing up and he was a thug now. Rod had his hand in a number of illegal activities. He was no one important outside the neighborhood. He was content to be the cliched bad element of the Gayle Street environs. Predictably, Rod enjoyed harrassing Henry.

Rod and a few of his "employees" were at their typical post at the west entrance of Gayle Street. One of the men nudged Rod when Henry was a half a block away. It gave Rod enough time to come up with one of his sparklingly witty greetings.

"Hey, Mother Tuh-REE-Suh, been out savin' the world tonight?"

"Good evening, gentlemen. As it turns out, no, I have been at a gathering over in the Halley District."

"Oooohhh, ritzi. Why weren't we invited?" Rod's companions chuckled.

"I did not think that you would be interested in attending, Rod. Otherwise, I might have sought to secure an invitation for you."

"You wouldn't have happened to have been at that big house with the circular driveway and gates, would you?" Rod asked, an knife of irritation in his tone.

"Actually, yes, that is where I was."

"Son of a @%#!" Rod spat. "That's the guy who's been interfering with the boss's distribution over in Moss and Wilty."

Henry did not say anything. He knew not to provoke Rod when he began ranting. He started to excuse himself.

"Wait a minute, St. Paul. Why did he have you up there? You gonna bring him down here to start messin' with my business!" It was an accusation, not a question.

Henry stood there looking at Rod trying to think of the best way to extricate himself from this increasingly tense situation. He noticed Rod nod to someone behind him. It was the last thing he saw. He heard the "thud" of whatever hit his head more than he felt it.

Henry woke the next day with an awful ringing in his ears. He was in a dimly lit room which he realized was a hospital room. Someone had seen the confrntation on Gayle Street and had called an ambulance.

Mr. Taylor walked in not ten minutes after Henry woke. One of the nurses found his business card in Henry's wallet and called him. Mr. Taylor had been in the waiting room all night.

After getting the damage report from the doctor and telling him what had transpired the night before, Mr. Taylor had some information for Henry. He wanted him to know that his medical bills were being taken care of. Also, he told Henry that the police were going to come by and interview him later.

Henry was having trouble focusing on Mr. Taylor's face. He looked at the semi-blurred visage for a moment. He proceded to thank Mr. Taylor for his kindness. He paused for a moment. Mr. Taylor could see that Henry was struggling with something.

"What is it, son?"

"What am I supposed to do now?"

Propers for Trinity 2

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Filed in Stories

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JB Is Still The Man

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Propers for the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist

On the day we remember, celebrate and meditate upon the life and death of the patron saint of axegrinder I would like to direct you to a few posts that I have written about John Baptist.

One of the first posts I wrote for axegrinder was "I Love John the Baptist." It is still one of my favorites.

JB is a prominent figure during Advent. I wrote two posts about him that I really liked when I wrote them. The first is called "John the Blues Singer." The second is "God's MC."

I hope that you are able to derive at least a portion of the enjoyment reading these posts as I had in writing them.

Hack away.

Filed in Saints

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Daniel Mitsui Opines on Culture

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Daniel Mitsui is a young Roman Catholic artist from Chicago. His blog is called "The Lion and the Cardinal."

He has writtten three posts on culture that I want you to read. I will warn you up front, he uses the "s" word a few times. To be perfectly honest, I could not think of a more appropriate word to describe what he was referring to whan he used it. I hope that you will not let that deter you from reading what he has to say.

I have included some excerpts under the links to the entire posts. Go and read.
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My argument is simple: The machinery of the popular entertainment industry in the mass-media age has removed control of the arts from both the artists and their audiences, and is manipulating both for profit. The result is a preponderance of bad and artificial culture that is unworthy of attention.

Post 1

In our modern culture, intellectually insulting and aesthetically offensive art is not only ubiquitous - it is popular, and immensely profitable, in a way that it never was previously. And the reason is that the art of our modern culture is unnatural - it is not produced by a collective genius, piety and intelligence, developed over time through tradition. It is produced by an enormous machine - the industry of entertainment, which is governed only by its own avarice.

If there is one lesson to be learned from the DaVinci Code, it is that any product, if marketed astutely, can make a lot of money, no matter how stupid and ugly and banal it be. All this is done through hype and promotion. The entertainment industry has successfully duped the masses into believing that they must participate in popular culture to be normal.

Post 2

While Christian use of popular media can create enthusiasm - as proved by The Passion, or by the apparent vibrancy of the megachurches, it cannot last. At best it is an invitation to move on to something substantial, because the qualities of popular culture are opposite qualities needed for an authentic Christian life - interiority, serenity and patience.

I think that the attitude of evangelization needs to be the same as that of true sacred art - we need to stop thinking about what effect we are having on our audience and altering our methods is anticipation of its response - and to simply be faithful. To communicate the divinely revealed truth in the most precise way possible, letting the message dictate the method. To do otherwise is to make the same mistake as abusers of the liturgy - it is to not trust our faith to succeed on its own merits. If we think that our message is so unappealing that it needs to be dressed up as something else, then we can expect everyone else to concur that it is indeed unappealing.

Post 3

The call for a return to natural culture is not a call to stifle creativity by taking a "museum curator" approach to culture. Rather, it is a call to regain the basic aesthetic sanity that is necessary for any culture to produce good art. I want Catholics to regain the sort of world-changing creativity that the early medieval Benedictines had - the sort of creativity that can build a civilization out of barbarism.
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Posted in Quotes

Related Tags: Culture, Christianity, Art, Entertainment

The Image of Love

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Our Triune God of grace, we humbly beseech you to tabernacle with us as we seek to know you and how it is that we have been created and recreated in your image. We are contingent, dependent beings in every way. And so we look to you as the Revealer, the Life-Giver and the Savior. Father, enable our communications so that you might be known and we might be conformed more fully to the image of your Son Jesus Christ by the most Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Christian Dogma of Love

God is love (1John 4:8). Here is the definitive statement of dogma for all reality. The Christian faith can be summed up in that one, simple clause: God is love. But, such an assertion begs the question, what is love? The world is starving for the love of the Trinity. Whether the hungry soul is a Chinese Communist, an Indian Buddhist, an Afghani Muslim, or an American pop star singing to millions of people about love, people created in God’s image must experience the reality of His love.

Unfortunately, our permissive culture has defined love as unconditional tolerance without any moral discrimination. Such a harmful, false dogma may be overcome by living in and out of the truth that God is love, and we are created and recreated in His image. The world can be a harsh and depressing place without a conception of a God of love.

Kallistos Ware is very helpful in explaining what the Bible means by “defining” God as love. “God, so the doctrine of the Trinity is telling us, is not just self-love, but shared love. God is not a single person, loving Himself alone. God is a triunity of persons loving each other, and in that shared love the persons are totally ‘oned’ without thereby losing their personal individuality.”

Ware emphasizes the nature of love as being toward others. “Love in its plenitude needs to embrace others, and so it can exist only where there is a plurality of persons.” Our being is found only in relation to others: the Trinity, humanity and creation. If love is relational, then we live as “transcripts of the Trinity.” Ware says that “among all the realities in our human existence, it is the experience of loving and being loved that brings us closest to the life of God.” The reason that such an experience brings us closest to God is that we are created and recreated in His image of love. But what does this love look like?

Christ: The Image of Love

Paul teaches us that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He also says that we are to be conformed to that image. If God is love, then His image is love. If we want to know what love is then we should look at the life of Jesus Christ as He walks and talks, loves and dies among and for mankind. Herein is love. Greater love has no man.

In viewing the Son’s relation with the Father by the Spirit we see love, for we see God, three persons in a relationship of holy love. We see mutual indwelling (“perichoresis” is the $5 theological term for it). We see deference and cooperation. We see three persons living toward one another and all creation. How is man in the image of God? A man is in the image of God as a free, unique, unrepeatable person in holy relation with others in love (Go ahead, reread that sentence).

It is one thing to say that the love that is God is perichoretic, but what does that mean? Does it help to say with Ware that perichoresis is “the unceasing movement of shared love that flows from all eternity among the three members of the holy Trinity?” Ware helps us to incarnate this idea by saying that “God as love is self-giving, sharing, solidarity, reciprocity and response.”

Okay, now we are getting close to home. Does love pout when it is scorned? No. Does love envy another’s good circumstances? No. Does love hold a grudge? No. Does love eat the flesh of another through sarcasm? No (oh, we are cutting to the quick now.). Does love gossip? No. Let us here from Paul the apostle his great poem on the love that is God:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

His is a rubber-meets-the-road kind of religion coming from the pen of a man capable of the highest thoughts and deepest reflections upon the image of God.

Corporate Worship and the Image of Love

Nowhere should the image of God, the image of the Father’s Beloved Son, the image of love Himself, be seen more clearly that in the corporate worship of the Church. Jesus informed the apostles that love for one another would be the mark by which the world would know that they were His followers. In other words, the Church in God’s image would be a communion of love.

In dealing with the Corinthians, Paul makes this point explicitly clear. Their gatherings had degenerated to the point of being unchristian in every way. Competition, envy, strife, immorality and other works of the flesh dominated them. Paul lifts up the ministry of prophecy as part of the solution. The apostle defines prophecy as a ministry of edification, exhortation and comfort (KJV), or upbuilding, encouragement and consolation (ESV). This ministry will tell the world that God is love, because it will show the world that God is love through the life of His people.

Concern for another, living toward others, and mutual indwelling are all expressed through such a life. Thus, Paul assures the Corinthians of the salutary effects of such self-giving love.

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you (1 Cor. 14:24-25).

The problems and solution, as well as the effects of living in the image of He who is love, are the same today as they were in the days when the converted pagans of Corinth tried and failed and tried again to image the love of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I would like to say a word of application here concerning two failures among God’s people to image the Image of love. These failures are sarcasm and competition. If love honors the other, desires the highest good of the other and gives of itself to the other, then it would seem a grievous sin to tear all that good down through sarcastic speech. Insincerity, duplicity, harshness and cruelty do not represent the fruit of the Spirit, but the works of the flesh. As those who partake of the Imago Dei, we cannot transgress love in this way. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, the Bible instructs.

Also, if love is cooperative and rejoices at the success and prosperity of another, then how can we justify an obsession with competition? Our culture values “in-your-face-ness.” Should we be numbered among those who wag our fingers, talk trash, bow up and look down on those whom we have defeated? God forbid. Our life in the image of God is by love to edify, strengthen, encourage, bring life, and make peace. It is not to tear down, insult, belittle, and humiliate.

Man is in the Imago Dei as a free, unique, unrepeatable person in holy relation with others in love. The corporate gathering of God’s people is the primary showcase to the world of what it means to be in the image of God. What is God like? Come among His people to find out. God is gathering people into His holy communion of love.

The Father reaches out through the Son by the Spirit. The Church is gathered by the Spirit in the Son and offered to the Father. Man and God are united in love. The eschatological purposes of God in Christ are made manifest. Here is heaven on earth. Here is love: persons in vulnerable, trusting, holy relations with one another. Here personhood is enabled because the sacraments draw us into the communion of the Trinity where we are transformed into the fullness of the image of God. Truly, the greatest of these is love.

“What now is my object and aim?
What now is my hope and desire?
To follow the heavenly lamb,
And after His image aspire:
My hope is all centered in thee;
I trust to recover Thy love,
On earth thy salvation to see,
And then to enjoy it above.”

- Charles Wesley

Propers for Trinity 1

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Filed in Theology

Related Tags: Image of God, Love, God, Trinity, Church, Christianity, Theology, Jesus Christ, Worship

Martin Davis on the Trinity

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Martin Davis, a friend and postulant for Holy Orders in our parish, preached yesterday's sermon on the Trinity. I have done some slight editing. I would also like to point you to Fr. Robert Hart on the Trinity.
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The basic doctrine of the Trinity can be stated quite easily. There is one God in three persons, who are all equal. If you have trouble comprehending this doctrine, you are not alone. God does reveal himself to us in various ways, but there is much about God that we do not understand.

What difference does it make anyway? What does the doctrine of the Trinity have to do with us? I hope to show you some of the answer this morning.

Let me start by giving you my favorite description of God. It’s St. John’s simple statement that “God is love” (1John 4:8,16). There are those who like to focus on the holiness of God, and there are others who like to focus on the sovereignty of God. God is both holy and sovereign. Yet for me, a fallen sinner standing in desperate need of God’s grace, it is the absolute certainty of God’s love that reassures me. If God were not loving, merciful, and forgiving, then certain existential philosophers would be right to describe our lives as a cosmic tragedy.

Thankfully, however, our God is a loving God. Yet, for God to be loving, there must be more than one divine person in the Godhead. One of the mistaken ideas about God is to think that God is only one person who acts in three different ways. But that won’t do at all. If God were only one person, then God could not be eternally love. Here’s why: love is relational; in other words, love requires more than one person. If God were only one divine Person, then his love would be merely self-love, and that is a contradiction in terms. Self-love is like the boy who looked into the pool of water and fell in love with his own reflection. That’s not love at all; that is narcissism.

Love requires more than one, and since God is love, God must be more than one divine Person. Yet the thought might occur to us that God became a loving God when he created us. That would mean that there was a time when God was not love. Yet God is eternally the same. He does not change from one day to the next. God is love, and that love has eternally existed among the persons of the Trinity. In fact, some theologians think that it is the overflowing love of the Trinity that explains why God created humans beings in the first place. According to Professor Steve Blakemore:

"If God IS love, then the purpose of our lives is to be loved by God, which we are. But further, the purpose of our lives is to open ourselves to the One who is Love and who wants us to know that Love. God made us, in other words, to love us."

I don’t know about you, but that kind of theology puts a spring in my step and makes me really glad I got up this morning. Quite frankly, when I begin thinking about God’s love for you and me, it makes me want to break out the champagne and declare a party, because that is good news worth celebrating.

Now consider this: God is love, and we are created in the image of God. Since both those statements are true, then it must follow that we reflect that image best when we love one another.

How is the world around us to know that we are Christians? Listen to what Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

The world around us will know that we are followers of Jesus Christ if we love one another. And we can love one another because we are created in the image of the God who is love. And God is love because God is triune.

Now, let’s take that line of thought in a slightly different direction. The Trinity provides the model for the Church of Jesus Christ (everything that I am about to say about the Church applies to the home, as well). The unity that God desires in his Church is a reflection of the unity that exist in himself.

In the Trinity there are no “rugged individualists.” The persons of the Godhead are not motivated by self-interest, neither do they pursue private agendas. The persons of the Trinity are mutually interdependent and always act with harmony of purpose. In other words, one divine person never gets “out-voted” by the other two. As Christians, it is God’s desire that our mutual interactions reflect the harmony and singleness of purpose that exist within the Trinity. One way to safeguard those mutual interactions is to remember Christ’s command that we love our neighbor as our selves.

Just for the record, it is at this point that tri-theism breaks down. Tri-theism is the mistaken idea that there are three gods, rather than the correct idea that there is one God in three persons. If the Godhead consisted of three independent gods, then harmony of purpose could never be a certainty. But God is not three independent gods. God is one God in three persons.

We might say that God is a community of divine persons. That sounds a bit strange, but the Trinity really is a divine community. That has significance for us, who are created in the image of that divine community. It means that we best express that divine image in community.

We know, however, that the image of God within us is marred and defaced. Yet it is through community that God begins to heal that image. Since God is a community of divine Persons, and we are created in his image. We only reach our full potential as human beings in the community of the Church. And it is in this regard that our culture’s emphasis on individualism is so misdirected, because it denies a fundamental reality about what it means to be human: we are truly ourselves only in community.

The primary community that God uses to shape us into the kind of people he would have us become is the Church. I want to encourage you to become more involved in your local church family. So many of our wounds and hurts have been received in relationships Those same wounds can only be healed in relationships. So, if you have been sort of hanging around on the sidelines, I encourage you to take some risks, to step out in faith, and become more involved in your church community. It is there that God will stretch you and grow you and lead you to spiritual heights you could never visit on your own.

In summary, the doctrine of the Trinity assures us that God is love. In order for God to be eternally love, God must be more than one person, because the nature of love requires another. As persons created in the image of God, we are to reflect that love to one another. Again, the Trinity is a community of divine Persons. We are created in the image of the triune God, so we become most fully human in the context of community. Let’s remember that the world will know we are Christians if we have love for one another. We can only express that love within the context of community. As Jesus said, let it be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Martin M. Davis
Candidate for Holy Orders
Reformed Episcopal Church

Propers for Trinity Sunday

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What Is Trinitarian Worship?

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Trinity Sunday 2006

The formula for prayer from at least the 4th century on has been “to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.” But first, the leading to pray must come to us from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. This circular movement of grace applies to every area of Christianity. Whether it is prayer, salvation, worship, or some other area, we must receive from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit and respond in the Spirit through the Son, to the Father.

Another reason that worship must be Trinitarian is our belief that God eternally exists in three persons. This may seem obvious, but the Church had to work its way through the issue of whom they were worshipping when they gathered together. They reasoned that anyone who works authoritatively and effectually in man’s salvation has to be God. Therefore, both Christ and the Holy Spirit must be God with the Father. If this is true, then all three should and must be worshipped as God. And so we worship the Father as God. We worship the Son as God. We worship the Spirit as God.

A further insight into the essentially Trinitarian nature of Christian worship comes from John McLeod Campbell. Worship is “a form of the life of Jesus Christ ascending to the Father in the life of those who are so intimately related to Him through the Spirit” (T. Torrance Theology in Rec. 139). James Torrance says it this way, “Worship is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father” (Worship 30). If worship is the offering of the life of the Son to the Father by the Spirit, then we approach worship as contingent and dependent, yet included and sanctified participants. Worship is no longer an activity we perform, but a participation in the life of communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I find such a conception of worship has an elevating nature.

Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ offered Himself to the Father by the Spirit. Both the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are included in this offering by Christ. It is important to ask and answer the question, “Who is the leader of Christian worship?” I conclude from Hebrews 9:14, in light of the sacraments, that Christ is the leader of our worship. Our worship is eternally constituted by our inclusion in the offering of Himself by the Spirit to the Father.

Propers for Trinity Sunday

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Filed in the Big Three, Theology

Related Tags: Trinity, Trinity Sunday, God, Worship, Church

Be Filled with the Spirit

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Whitsun Monday 2006

I was asked the following question in the comments section of a recent post. I would like to deal with it in a post rahter than in the comments section.

"Do you think that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon conversion is the only time that one is 'filled,' or can there be multiple "fillings?'"

Certain metaphors from the Bible are often tortured to death, hindering people from understanding the meaning that they were intended to convey. The idea of being "filled with the Holy Spirit" is one of them. The basic idea behind the metaphor of "filling" is that the Holy Spirit is an all-pervasive presence in the lives of those who have believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, nothing is beyond the purview of the Spirit's attention and influence.

It has been so helpful to me to recognize that all the metaphors in the Scriptures for salvation should be considered under the category of relationship. We are persons who have been created by God. That is not a metaphor. God is three persons who relate to one another and also to creation.

In our on-going relationship with the Holy Spirit, he leads us into greater maturity and godliness. We learn more and more of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and we respond to that knowledge with faith, love and obedience. I do not mean to make it sound simple. It can be very messy and complicated due to our fallenness, bad instruction that we might receive, or numerous other circumstances.

Notice the uses of the phrase in the New Testament (Here is a quick search from Bible Gateway). It is not used in a strict, dogmatic manner. It is used more poetically and occasionally. It is usually connected with a person or persons uttering speech about God.

For example, the only time someone not named Luke uses the phrase, it is Paul. He uses it in Ephesians 5:18 as a contrast to drunkenness. Being filled with the Spirit is apprpriate for Christians, being drunk with wine is not. I doesn't seem to me that this metaphor was intended to support the doctrinal assertions of Methodist/Holiness Christians, Pentecostals, or anyone else. I would be happy to hear other options in the comments section.

Propers for Whitsun Monday

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Filed in The Big 3 - Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday

Related Tags: Whitsunday, Whitsuntide, Whitsun Monday, Pentecost, Holy Spirit, Holiness, Sanctification, Pentecostal, Baptism of the Holy Spirit

The Person Behind the Signs

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Pentecost 2006

There are a lot of fireworks surrounding the coming and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. There was a loud sound like a powerful wind. The building was shaken. The Scriptures speak of fiery tongues appearing over the heads of the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

Following the descent of the Holy Spirit the disciples are speaking in languages that were previously unknown to them. The purpose of this miraculous speech was to communicate the wonderful works of God to those whose attention was on the newborn Church. As with Christ, so with the Holy Spirit, his presence was attended by events that signaled to the participants that a divine person had shown up.

When Jesus came he did miracles. He spoke gracious words. He did these works and spoke these words by the Holy Spirit in the name of his Father. Everything about him told us what his Father was like. He wanted people to know and love his Father. He wanted people to believe in his Father through him.

When the Holy Spirit came the Church did miracles. The Church spoke gracious words by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came so that we might know about and participate in the relationship of the Father and the Son. He came so that by him we might believe in the Father through Christ.

The signs and wonders are important but they are not the end, they are simply the means to the end. The goal of the Spirit’s descent on Whitsunday (Pentecost) is that all people might know the Father and the Son within the context of the Church. My prayer is that this sublime goal would be achieved in all of us and, through us, in all of the world.

Propers for Pentecost

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Filed in The Big 3 - Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday

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Who's Minding the Store?

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I dreamed a dream and in my dream I saw some things.

A young woman stood over a precipice. She was contemplating the jump.

A worn out man stumbled across a train yard and fell asleep on the tracks. He was close to an O. D.

An executive sat in the dark by himself while a dinner party went on in the next room. There was laughter in the other room. He wore depression like a blanket.

A woman lounged on her balcony watching a mugging take place in the street. She didn't care one way or the other.

A soldier fired on an unarmed woman who was from the wrong tribe and the wrong religion. She rolled on the ground screaming and bleeding.

In my dream the camera panned up and I saw the ascended Christ observing all these events. I do not know how to describe his countenance. Sometimes he looked angry. Sometimes he smiled. Sometimes there was sadness. Sometimes it seemed like all of them at once.

I waited.

Nothing happened. Only more people suffering and sinning. The Lord continued to watch.

A thought began to form in my mind. Was it a thought or a question? Before it materialized, something came to me. I don't know if it was an answer, because I don't know if I had a question.

"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." (Acts 10:38 NKJV)

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father ... And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." (John 14:12, 16 NKJV)

Hack away.

Filed in The Big Three - Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday

Related Tags: Ascension, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Suffering, Sin, Depression