The Spirituality of Holy Week

This Holy Week I am particularly mindful that we are seeking to engage this practice amid stay-at-home orders thanks to a global pandemic. Now more than ever, we need to offer grace toward ourselves and those whom we hold close, and we need to be open to receiving it, whether over the phone, over video chat, or through another means of communication. As Celal reminded us on Palm Sunday, the first disciples of Christ in Jerusalem on that fateful Passover almost two millenia ago were probably living through their own time of fear, anxiety, and limitation. And my hope is that we can make good use of these unplanned external circumstances in our spiritual practice this Holy Week.

Handwashing: A spiritual practice

With the 20s and 30s in mind, body, and spirit, I have been journeying through a reflection on the Signs of Life in our faith this Lent. And, appropriately enough, it happened that the reflection for this past Sunday focused on water and invited us to use our handwashing as an opportunity to, in their words, “remember that as Baptized Christians, we have gone through the waters of death so that we may have abundant life.”

You are the Salt of the Earth

…as we look ahead to hearing this verse proclaimed from the Gospel of Matthew this coming Sunday, I can think of several reasons why Christ might have specifically chosen the image of salt as a metaphor for people of good faith.

God: In Storm and Sunshine

While the precipitation in recent days could have justifiably been a cause for concern—with secondary effects ranging from upended people to sliding cars, I’m also reminded as we anticipate the Baptism of our Lord this Sunday that water is the source of all life on Earth.

Finding Gifts in the Wilderness

As we approach the fourth Sunday of Advent, I am reminded of the world of dreams, where both God and our subconscious mind can speak to us—in ways that can be both playful and powerful. I think of the dream world like an arid landscape, perhaps untended for years but still providing fertile ground for countless creatures, some more wild than others.

Advent Preparations

Advent invites us to make space and time for light in the midst of darkness, and to prepare our hearts and our minds for the Christ Child.

The Call of Christ

This past Sunday was a day when our services took us one step closer to Christ’s call: a call described powerfully by Presiding Bishop Curry, to “change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends.”

God's healing power

Our Gospel reading this Sunday from the seventeenth chapter of Luke brings to mind another instance of Jesus healing a leper. The story shows up in various forms in the first chapter of Mark, the fifth chapter of Luke, and the eighth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew’s rendering, Jesus tells the man who was just healed: “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

God's nourishment

“The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

Jesus traveled the countryside with a kind of secret nourishment—a strength that comes from hearing and living out the Word and Wisdom of God.

Living the Holy Spirit

This Sunday it isn’t just an opportunity to wear one’s most audacious dye, to weigh in on an ongoing debate about whether coral, garnet, vermilion, or another hue is the best expression of those lowest wavelengths on the visible electromagnetic spectrum—this Sunday is a birthday party for the church, one of the three principal feasts of the liturgical year-

Celebrating our Children

With the World Premiere of our 4th-7th grade Sunday School movie scheduled to follow our 10:30am Youth Sunday Service, this weekend is an opportunity for us to reflect on what the youngest St. Georgians among us can teach us about our faith. I know there have been numerous times in my own life, where someone younger has ended up being my teacher in matters of faith.

My sheep hear my voice

Even with all the advances in phone technology, picking up a landline telephone is still an exercise in anticipation. Among all those who might be calling, it is still a joy to recognize the voice of a friend over the phone. It is a statement of relationship to recognize someone’s voice and say, “Hi Chris” when all that they had said on the other end of the line was a simple “Hello, can I speak with John?” I hear Jesus describing this kind of relational recognition in our Gospel for this Sunday:

Holy Week Moments

As we approach the mysteries of Holy Week, my thoughts journey back to the Holy Week moments that have stayed with me, from years long ago.

Our Lenten Journey

I’m fairly used to spending most of my time inside these days. And, at this point, imagining a forty-day trip into the wilderness feels downright bucolic. I can imagine the beauty of those desert afternoons—the evening breeze through the dunes at sunset, the stars multiplying in the sky as the blue of eventide fades into violet. And, as the night darkens, I imagine a new moon revealing the cascade of the milky way across the sky. I feel a deep sense of peace, outside in creation.

The Beatitudes

Our text this Sunday is the story of the Beatitudes from Luke’s Gospel, chapter six. Before Jesus’ speech gets underway, we are told about the crowd: “They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases”

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by difficulty or disease. For me the Beatitudes are a reminder that even in the midst of difficulty, God can still bring healing and new life into our world. St. George’s is thriving. We are blessed with so many kind and thoughtful individuals who give their attention to effective and powerful service. There are a variety of gifts here, all being woven together in God’s good purposes. Haley and I are thrilled to share that we are expecting a second child. Life is beautiful and good. I hope you can join me in saying, in the midst of our challenges, “Thanks be to God.”

My hour has not yet come

Dear Friends,

It wasn’t until a couple years after Seminary, that I was able to fully understand the exchange between Jesus and his mother in our reading this Sunday from the second chapter of John’s Gospel. I was attending a friend’s Catholic wedding, and the Roman Catholic Priest officiating the service was the one who finally helped me understand the exchange. The text gives us a window into a rather public “difference of opinion” between Jesus and his mother. Jesus was of the opinion that “My hour has not yet come”, while Mary knew that it was time for Jesus to begin his public ministry. And, rather than continuing to argue with Jesus directly, Mary sends a message through the servants, telling them to “Do whatever he [Jesus] tells you”—trusting that Jesus will listen to his mother and start the very thing that he was perhaps hesitant to undertake.

Thankfulness for those who serve

As we approach Veteran’s Day weekend, I’m feeling a particular thankfulness for those who have served in our armed services. We are blessed by the faithful attentiveness of so many of our women and men in uniform: and, to me, the hierarchical organization of the military provides an interesting comparison and foil for the Body of the church—while we do have Rectors, Bishops, and Presiding Bishops, we also have the enduring metaphor of the church as a Body, full of people with different gifts—where we all need one another.

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