We are made in the image of a creative God who labored so hard in the creation of the cosmos that he decided to to institute a day for rest and appreciation of this work that is right, good, and holy. Who has ever poured their effort into something so wholeheartedly that you could not help yourself but look upon the fruit of your labor and think: this is good. Maybe it was a hobby, maybe it was something you did at your school or job, maybe it was your child, and maybe it was simply doing whatever you had to do to make it through the day. This work that you have done is holy. This. This church, these windows, this organ, this altar, these children, this community, this worship, this work that you have done by the grace of God, St. George’s, is holy, and it is your prayer. It is your work in faithful response to the work that God has wrought for us in salvation.
Read MoreAs today’s Collect announces, we have already been knit together in one communion, a communion containing saintly sinners and sinful saints, the named and the unnamed, the known and the unknown alike; whether still this side of heaven or having already gone home into the eternal embrace of a loving God.
O blest communion, fellowship divine.
The risk really is that the Feast of All Saints becomes about a celebration of a story that is not ours, not with our faults and our fears and our fragility. And that can feed the fear that we are not enough; do not matter; are not worthy of remembering or of love.
Read MoreJesus looking at him with such love was what made Zacchaeus want to change. He recognized that repentance required something of him. He decided to give away half of his possessions to the poor and repay anyone he had defrauded four times what he had taken from them. Jesus’ generosity of spirit toward Zacchaeus caused him to want to be generous in return. He knew what he had been doing was wrong, but Jesus didn’t chastise him. He let his love speak for itself. And Zacchaeus was so moved, that it changed his life.
Read More‘God, I thank you [the Pharisee prays] that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income’ (Luke 18:11).
And, it goes without saying, that our friend the Pharisee goes to temple. is where he thanks God for his goodness in the face of such an unwanted, undesirable companion: the tax collector.
And what we noticed in the pilgrim is obvious in the Pharisee: self-righteousness and a lack of humility. An inability to see in the other, some thing, not to mention someone, of value.
Read MoreThe next day, Jacob was finally reunited with his brother. He and his whole family bowed before Esau repeatedly as they saw Esau and his household approaching in the distance, and Esau ran to meet him, embraced him and wept as he was reconciled with his brother. God answered Jacob’s prayer and perhaps God had answered Esau’s prayer too. God longs for our human relationships to be healed. And God longs for our relationship with God to go to the next level. And sometimes struggle is the necessary precursor to both.
Read MoreIt is such a blessing for me to be with people at the end of their lives, right before they die, to pray the Litany at the Time of Death. That is the Episcopal name for last rites. It is such a sacred time, in those hours when someone is transitioning to life in all its fullness with God. And what is so amazing to me is when deeply faithful people, people who have come to church every Sunday for their entire lives, sometimes in the midst of great suffering, express how grateful they are for their life and grateful for their connection to God. It makes me appreciate just how effective the liturgy is, transforming us little by little, week by week, into people who know how to give thanks and to whom to offer it.
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