Today’s celebration of the Trinity reminds us that God is available to us in three different ways, or kinds of relationship.
In our first lesson from Proverbs we see wisdom described as if it were a person. Many Christians have viewed this as a description of the Holy Spirit’s role. John (in the prologue to his Gospel) associates this with the Logos who was with God at the beginning and entered our world as Jesus the Christ. Most of this book is instructions given by a scholar to a student on how to lead a moral life; with proper respect for God. Life involves choices: it is important that one be informed, trained and persuaded to make the right ones. The objective of life is attainment of wisdom, i.e. integrity in God's eyes.
Our second reading reminds us that God’s love is poured into us through the Holy Spirit. Christ is our entry point to God’s grace. The justification He gives has a second effect: even in times of trial it lead us to openness to God’s plans through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our person.
In our Gospel today we hear John’s understanding of the Trinity: Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Son and the Spirit each draw from the Father and pass on to the faithful disciple.
Episcopalian writers often speak of us as people of the Incarnation. That is, we put great weight on God entering our human world in Christ and our continuing His work as “the hands and feet of Christ” in our own day. God is not just “out there” in interstellar space. Incarnation also gives us a window of understanding on the Trinity whom we celebrate today. The one God who is all powerful Creator, is also incarnate in Jesus the Christ and is (in Spirit) with us and uniting us in the Divine Oneness of the Trinity.
The Trinity is a perfect relationship of love in which neither unity nor distinctness of the divine persons is compromised. God is understood to be dynamic, loving, and available to be in sacred relationship with humanity for our salvation.
God can therefore be available for us in different ways. At some moments in our lives we need to see and feel that we are part of something bigger and longer lasting than the hassles of the moment. We need that connection to the infinite Creator of all things who loves us. At other times we are in need of a companion on the way who has answers we don’t and strength to support us. Yet, at still different times we are complacent or stuck and need God to surprise us. We need a Spirit that blows as it wills and pushes us along in the process, until we get the message.
My sisters and brothers, God has many ways of working in and through us, let us be open to all of them!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Homily for Pentecost C, 2010
Come Holy Spirit; kindle in us the fire of your love!
In our first reading we heard the story of the Holy Spirit’s arrival. The experience was so overwhelming that the first disciples could only describe it as being over taken by violent winds and fire! It is now fifty days since Easter. The way Luke puts it shows that Pentecost is a milestone in the story of salvation. He attempts to describe the event in human terms (winds and flames) but it is never possible to explain a divine mystery. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the event which inaugurates the final stage of the salvation history; this new era includes our present times and builds to the end of time.
Acts is about mission, about speaking, proclaiming, the good news to people everywhere; Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind this work, e.g. in the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch, we read “the Spirit said to Philip. . .” Today we read that they spoke in other languages through the Spirit’s power.
In our second reading we learn that Christians are obligated to live according to the Spirit as children of God. Paul has told us that Christian living is centered in life “in the Spirit rather than on any form of self-centeredness. The Christian is under an obligation to Christ: to live according to the Spirit. Now he says that those who live in the Spirit are children of God. This implies a new relationship with God.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus describes His relationship with the Father and encourages his disciples to believe. He then promises them the Holy Spirit and describes its importance for guiding the disciples and binding them in spiritual unity with himself and the Father. As faithful Christians we are to continue Jesus’ works – and do even greater.
There really are two different schools of thought as to the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” There is the Charismatic or Pentecostal view and the Scholastic view. From Pentecostle School we get the familiar list drawn from 1 Corinthians:
* Wisdom
* Knowledge
* Discernment of spirits
* Speaking in tongues
* Interpretation of tongues
* Prophecy
* Faith
* Working of miracles
* Healing
The Scholastic school (drawn from the reflections of late Midi-evil Christians) is probably less familiar to us but provides valuable expressions of more subtle spiritual gifts:
1. Wisdom, Recognizing God’s work in the world
2. Understanding, comprehending what it takes to follow Christ
3. Right Judgment (Council), making good decisions
4. Courage (fortitude), taking a Christian stand for what is right
5. Knowledge, understanding Scripture and Christian Tradition and always seeking deeper understanding
6. Reverence (Piety), respect for God
7. Fear of the Lord, wonder and Awe of God’s work, love and beauty
All Christians need to pray for growth in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The words of a very old Latin (Veni, Sancte Spiritus) hymn will help us end with a prayer.
In our first reading we heard the story of the Holy Spirit’s arrival. The experience was so overwhelming that the first disciples could only describe it as being over taken by violent winds and fire! It is now fifty days since Easter. The way Luke puts it shows that Pentecost is a milestone in the story of salvation. He attempts to describe the event in human terms (winds and flames) but it is never possible to explain a divine mystery. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the event which inaugurates the final stage of the salvation history; this new era includes our present times and builds to the end of time.
Acts is about mission, about speaking, proclaiming, the good news to people everywhere; Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind this work, e.g. in the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch, we read “the Spirit said to Philip. . .” Today we read that they spoke in other languages through the Spirit’s power.
In our second reading we learn that Christians are obligated to live according to the Spirit as children of God. Paul has told us that Christian living is centered in life “in the Spirit rather than on any form of self-centeredness. The Christian is under an obligation to Christ: to live according to the Spirit. Now he says that those who live in the Spirit are children of God. This implies a new relationship with God.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus describes His relationship with the Father and encourages his disciples to believe. He then promises them the Holy Spirit and describes its importance for guiding the disciples and binding them in spiritual unity with himself and the Father. As faithful Christians we are to continue Jesus’ works – and do even greater.
There really are two different schools of thought as to the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” There is the Charismatic or Pentecostal view and the Scholastic view. From Pentecostle School we get the familiar list drawn from 1 Corinthians:
* Wisdom
* Knowledge
* Discernment of spirits
* Speaking in tongues
* Interpretation of tongues
* Prophecy
* Faith
* Working of miracles
* Healing
The Scholastic school (drawn from the reflections of late Midi-evil Christians) is probably less familiar to us but provides valuable expressions of more subtle spiritual gifts:
1. Wisdom, Recognizing God’s work in the world
2. Understanding, comprehending what it takes to follow Christ
3. Right Judgment (Council), making good decisions
4. Courage (fortitude), taking a Christian stand for what is right
5. Knowledge, understanding Scripture and Christian Tradition and always seeking deeper understanding
6. Reverence (Piety), respect for God
7. Fear of the Lord, wonder and Awe of God’s work, love and beauty
All Christians need to pray for growth in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The words of a very old Latin (Veni, Sancte Spiritus) hymn will help us end with a prayer.
Come, Holy Spirit,
send forth the heavenly
radiance of your light.
Come, provider for the poor,
come giver of gifts,
come, light of the heart.
Greatest comforter,
sweet guest of the soul,
sweet consolation.
In labor, rest,
in heat, temperance,
in tears, solace.
O most blessed light,
fill the inmost heart
of your faithful.
Without your divine will,
there is nothing in humanity,
nothing is harmless.
Wash that which is unclean,
water that which is dry,
heal that which is wounded.
Bend that which is inflexible,
warm that which is chilled,
make right that which is wrong.
Give to your faithful,
who rely on you,
the sevenfold gifts.
Give reward to virtue,
give salvation at our passing on,
give eternal joy.
Amen. Alleluia.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Bishiop Kirk Smith on PBS Religion and Ethics
On May 21, 2010, last Friday's broadcast, PBS: Religion and Ethics program gathered religious leaders for a discussion of Arizona's SB 1070 - the Arizona State immigration law. I highly recommend both the video and transcript posted on the PBS web sight.
Click Here
As I mentioned in an early blog posting, I favor comprehensive immigration reform in the form of a worker visa program that is genuinely accessible to the individuals who seek work in the U.S. I also take exception to the perspectives that conflate the immigration issues with drug smuggling and border security. These are genuinely separate issues and require their own unique solutions.
Here is my earlier post!
Click Here
As I mentioned in an early blog posting, I favor comprehensive immigration reform in the form of a worker visa program that is genuinely accessible to the individuals who seek work in the U.S. I also take exception to the perspectives that conflate the immigration issues with drug smuggling and border security. These are genuinely separate issues and require their own unique solutions.
Here is my earlier post!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Homily for 6 Easter C
Let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Christianity.
Our reading from Acts tells the story of the Conversion of Lydia and her household. In the ancient Greek culture, women were basically treated as property. In Roman culture, they had a bit more status but the improvement was not dramatic. I point this out because this story of the first Christians accepting Lydia as a head of household demonstrates their dramatic difference from the culture around them. This story is one more tiny glimpse into strongly our predecessors held the equality symbolized in images like the “Mystical Body of Christ.”
This story is set in Paul’s second great missionary journey. Starting from Caesarea Philippi, he has traveled north to Antioch, then generally northwest through Asia Minor. He, Silas and Timothy have now arrived at “Troas,” a seaport on the Aegean Sea. Now he has a dream, which he understands to contain instructions from God. “Macedonia” was the Roman province in northern Greece.
In our reading from Revelations, John continues describing the heavenly city established as God’s thrown in the recreated world. He dramatizes God’s glory by describing it as all the sunlight the city needs. In his dream John is carried by an angel into the desert to see a decaying “Babylon,” i.e. Rome. His next vision is the glorified Church, i.e., the new “holy city of Jerusalem.” The height of the city “wall” (21:17) is minuscule compared to what would be expected. This City fears no enemies.
Our gospel reading is from John’s account of the Last Supper. Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit after he arrives in heaven. He also warns that the Holy Spirit “will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said.” The implication is that more teachings (or revelations) are to come. There is an old monastic saying that is draw from this admonition: “Be attentive to the Holy Spirit!”
We are now in that part of the Easter Season where we look toward Christ’s Ascension and the birth of the Christian Church on Pentecost. Today we remembered the promise of the Holy Spirit and Jesus admonition that we actually listen to it…. We are further reminded of the promised perfected world to come in the reunion of Heaven and Earth.
Christianity has both a spiritual and practical side. We have talked much lately about that practical side: loving one’s neighbor, sharing out faith with others, even construction plans for our new building. We must not neglect the spiritual. It is important that we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is important because the act of making such prayers opens our hearts and minds for the Spirit’s guidance. It also helps us be ready to accept its gift of passionate spiritual love. That fiery part of the Pentecost story. Let us prayerfully make ourselves ready to celebrate the birth of the Church!
Our reading from Acts tells the story of the Conversion of Lydia and her household. In the ancient Greek culture, women were basically treated as property. In Roman culture, they had a bit more status but the improvement was not dramatic. I point this out because this story of the first Christians accepting Lydia as a head of household demonstrates their dramatic difference from the culture around them. This story is one more tiny glimpse into strongly our predecessors held the equality symbolized in images like the “Mystical Body of Christ.”
This story is set in Paul’s second great missionary journey. Starting from Caesarea Philippi, he has traveled north to Antioch, then generally northwest through Asia Minor. He, Silas and Timothy have now arrived at “Troas,” a seaport on the Aegean Sea. Now he has a dream, which he understands to contain instructions from God. “Macedonia” was the Roman province in northern Greece.
In our reading from Revelations, John continues describing the heavenly city established as God’s thrown in the recreated world. He dramatizes God’s glory by describing it as all the sunlight the city needs. In his dream John is carried by an angel into the desert to see a decaying “Babylon,” i.e. Rome. His next vision is the glorified Church, i.e., the new “holy city of Jerusalem.” The height of the city “wall” (21:17) is minuscule compared to what would be expected. This City fears no enemies.
Our gospel reading is from John’s account of the Last Supper. Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit after he arrives in heaven. He also warns that the Holy Spirit “will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said.” The implication is that more teachings (or revelations) are to come. There is an old monastic saying that is draw from this admonition: “Be attentive to the Holy Spirit!”
We are now in that part of the Easter Season where we look toward Christ’s Ascension and the birth of the Christian Church on Pentecost. Today we remembered the promise of the Holy Spirit and Jesus admonition that we actually listen to it…. We are further reminded of the promised perfected world to come in the reunion of Heaven and Earth.
Christianity has both a spiritual and practical side. We have talked much lately about that practical side: loving one’s neighbor, sharing out faith with others, even construction plans for our new building. We must not neglect the spiritual. It is important that we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is important because the act of making such prayers opens our hearts and minds for the Spirit’s guidance. It also helps us be ready to accept its gift of passionate spiritual love. That fiery part of the Pentecost story. Let us prayerfully make ourselves ready to celebrate the birth of the Church!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Border Security and Immigration Reform - From a Center-est Perspective
As an Episcopalian and political Independent, I am experiencing great offense at the polarized political bickering engendered by Arizona’s new Immigration Law. Recently an article in the Washington Post by Eugene Robinson was brought to my attention; it is this article that moved me to write down my thoughts. He makes appeal for “Fact-based analysis” and then grossly under represents the complexity of the issues and also misrepresents the facts in support of his obvious political bios. The following are the facts as I know them from my experience living in Cochise County; one of the counties that have been more dramatically affected by cross border crime.
1, Violence and theft related to professional smuggling operations along the border have been on the rise in the last four years; despite claims to the contrary. Here in Cochise County people have been held hostage at gun point in there own homes wile smugglers (Coyotes) waited for the cover of darkness. Recently a local rancher, Rob Krentz, who is well known as a kind and caring individual, was murdered on his ranch by someone involved in these smuggling operations. Members of my congregation, and I myself, have endured smuggling related burglaries and auto theft. The claim that we do not need to do more to secure the border is utterly naive.
2, Border security and illegal immigration are separate, though overlapping, issues. There should be no doubt that most of the illegal immigrants are individuals, driven by poverty, to seek employment here in this country swinging a hammer, pushing a broom, etc. I have personally encountered many of these hard-working individuals. Because of the inaccessibility of work visas, they pay “Coyotes” to guide them over the border. This not only puts them in the hands of professional drug smugglers but of the cartel enforcers who garde the shipments. I have found it all too routine to read in the local news about another body found in the local desert or mountains; an immigrant left to dye by a “Coyote.” The local smugglers and their drug cartel associates are ruthless professional criminals, let us not be in doubt of this fact. As a Christian I see this present situation as one humanitarian crisis compounded by another. To solve this we must recognize that there are two separate issues at hand: the need for greater security and safety along our border and the need for immigration reform. Which means that our present polarized bickering between the “Left and the Right” (which I see Mr. Robinson contributing too rather than helping) must end.
3, If meaningful immigration reform were enacted, allowing real accessability to work visas, many dynamics of the present situation would be transformed for the better. First, workers seeking employment in the U.S. and the businesses that need these workers, would have legal access to each other. Let us not pretend that business in the U.S. does not need these workers. If immigrant workers were not finding jobs, their influx would have slowed to a trickle long ago. The next most obvious effect of this change would be to remove the drive for immigrants to seek out the services of criminal guides. This would be a genuine humanitarian victory from my perspective. Finally, the reform would also allow federal and local law enforcement to focus on interdicting the truly serious crime that threatens the safety of those (like myself) who live near the international border.
4, The conservative pretense that a new Arizona law against illegal immigration will help keep the border areas secure is nonsense. Such redundancy cannot do any more to inhibit crime than have the preexisting federal laws. This law will tie up limited local resources enforcing laws that federal agencies are already enforcing. It will require local law enforcement to look for probable cause in areas that are outside their training. Which will lead to racial profiling (even though this law was amended to ban such) simply because local law enforcement is not trained in this sphere in the manner of Customs and Border Patrol. From my perspective, this is nothing less than political posturing.
Finally one other fact bears noting. The liberal calm that the Mexican drug cartels procure their assault weapons on the U.S. side of the border is a genuine lie. Investigative reporters with Fox News debunked this claim months ago. The firearms that the Mexican government requested the U.S. government to trace represented only 10% of the weapons they had confiscated in their war with the drug cartels. The other 90% came from other countries and from their own military. Of that 10% only a fraction actually came from this country. Claiming that we have a responsibility to bear for feeding the violence in Mexico is utter propaganda.
Will we Americans ever put aside simplistic “group think,” “blame the other side” politics and pursue real solutions to our challenges?
1, Violence and theft related to professional smuggling operations along the border have been on the rise in the last four years; despite claims to the contrary. Here in Cochise County people have been held hostage at gun point in there own homes wile smugglers (Coyotes) waited for the cover of darkness. Recently a local rancher, Rob Krentz, who is well known as a kind and caring individual, was murdered on his ranch by someone involved in these smuggling operations. Members of my congregation, and I myself, have endured smuggling related burglaries and auto theft. The claim that we do not need to do more to secure the border is utterly naive.
2, Border security and illegal immigration are separate, though overlapping, issues. There should be no doubt that most of the illegal immigrants are individuals, driven by poverty, to seek employment here in this country swinging a hammer, pushing a broom, etc. I have personally encountered many of these hard-working individuals. Because of the inaccessibility of work visas, they pay “Coyotes” to guide them over the border. This not only puts them in the hands of professional drug smugglers but of the cartel enforcers who garde the shipments. I have found it all too routine to read in the local news about another body found in the local desert or mountains; an immigrant left to dye by a “Coyote.” The local smugglers and their drug cartel associates are ruthless professional criminals, let us not be in doubt of this fact. As a Christian I see this present situation as one humanitarian crisis compounded by another. To solve this we must recognize that there are two separate issues at hand: the need for greater security and safety along our border and the need for immigration reform. Which means that our present polarized bickering between the “Left and the Right” (which I see Mr. Robinson contributing too rather than helping) must end.
3, If meaningful immigration reform were enacted, allowing real accessability to work visas, many dynamics of the present situation would be transformed for the better. First, workers seeking employment in the U.S. and the businesses that need these workers, would have legal access to each other. Let us not pretend that business in the U.S. does not need these workers. If immigrant workers were not finding jobs, their influx would have slowed to a trickle long ago. The next most obvious effect of this change would be to remove the drive for immigrants to seek out the services of criminal guides. This would be a genuine humanitarian victory from my perspective. Finally, the reform would also allow federal and local law enforcement to focus on interdicting the truly serious crime that threatens the safety of those (like myself) who live near the international border.
4, The conservative pretense that a new Arizona law against illegal immigration will help keep the border areas secure is nonsense. Such redundancy cannot do any more to inhibit crime than have the preexisting federal laws. This law will tie up limited local resources enforcing laws that federal agencies are already enforcing. It will require local law enforcement to look for probable cause in areas that are outside their training. Which will lead to racial profiling (even though this law was amended to ban such) simply because local law enforcement is not trained in this sphere in the manner of Customs and Border Patrol. From my perspective, this is nothing less than political posturing.
Finally one other fact bears noting. The liberal calm that the Mexican drug cartels procure their assault weapons on the U.S. side of the border is a genuine lie. Investigative reporters with Fox News debunked this claim months ago. The firearms that the Mexican government requested the U.S. government to trace represented only 10% of the weapons they had confiscated in their war with the drug cartels. The other 90% came from other countries and from their own military. Of that 10% only a fraction actually came from this country. Claiming that we have a responsibility to bear for feeding the violence in Mexico is utter propaganda.
Will we Americans ever put aside simplistic “group think,” “blame the other side” politics and pursue real solutions to our challenges?
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