A lesson from Dad

I remember my father having a monthly liturgy for paying the bills. On the first day of each month he would sit at his roll top desk and gather the bills. He would sort them in order of importance and place them in a pile with the most important on top. At the top was always the mortgage, then the car loan and utilities, insurance, groceries, investments, the newspaper subscriptions and kid stuff, and so on. He would get out his neatly balanced checkbook and begin paying the bills so that the most important were paid first. Being a curious child who liked to help, it wasn’t long before I picked up on the fact that first check my father actually wrote each month wasn’t the mortgage, but my parents monthly pledge to our church.

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.

All Saints Sunday

All Saints reminds us that our life in Christ is for eternity and that eternity begins now. We think about beginnings and endings and the circle of life. We come from God, we return to God, and God is with us always. As an expression of this Alpha and Omega reality, we will baptize one child at the 8:00 service and five at the 10:30 service. At the 4:00 Evensong, we will give thanks for the lives of those who have died during the past year in the context of this sung service that is such a beautiful part of our Anglican tradition.

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