After the Shepherds Left

“It was a long journey and cold,” said the Donkey,

        stamping his feet.

“The man led the way, I walked, and she rode,

        all on a winter’s day.”

The Ox looked down on the man and the maid and the little babe

        all asleep on the hay,

        and said in awe and wonder,

“They’re very tiny when they are newborn.”

“Yes,” said the Donkey, “but consider this,

“It takes years of love and nurture

        to bring each of them to full maturity.”

“I know,” said the sentimental Ox,

looking down at the babe in the manger

        and shaking his head all on a Christmas day.

“Don’t be deceived by what you see,” said the Donkey,

“This one will conquer death and hell,

        and overthrow all the kingdoms of the earth

        and the sky.”

CHRYSOS CHRYSTUS CHRYSALLIS

Chrysos.

Chrystus.                                                                  

Shell Chrysallis

I shed thee

Spreading golden wings

For him to see.

Poor pupa

Golden pain

Springing joyous

Christening me.

Death’s baptism

Into life,

Into love,

In the midst of life.

Christo sunestauromia

Shedding only shell

My being ever living.

Chrysos,

Christus

Ever living

Lives in me.

Sanctifica me,

Salve me,

Inebria me.

Christen me

with thine own self,

For thou dost know me

for what I am.

Thou knowest I need thee.

Deep-laid in a soft red womb,

Absconde me

Ne permittas me

Separari a te,

Intra tua vulnera!

Bring to me

third birth

beyond death,

Spreading golden wings

for Him to see.

He died,

Chrysallis.

He lives,

Chrysos

Chrystus.

I died.

I will die again,

I will ever live.

Deo gratia!

Notes:

Chrysos.                                             Gold               

Chrystus.                                           Christ

Christo sunestauromia                    I am co-crucified with Christ

Sanctifica me,                                    Sanctify me

Salve me,                                           Save me

Inebria me.                                        Inebriate me

Absconde me                                     Hide me

Ne permittas me                              Do not permit me

Separari a te,                                     To be separated from Thee

Intra tua vulnera!                            In your wounds!

Deo gratia!                                         Thanks be to God!

God Initiates, Man Responds. A Meditation from Ephesians

From time to time in my morning Lectio Divina I write a reflection on the Scriptures I have been reading. Lectio Divina has four parts: Read the passage, Reflect on its meaning, Respond to God, and Rest in His presence. My Response this morning is to humbly give thanks for the riches of His grace.

It is God our Father who says to us, “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you” [Isaiah 43:4], “even when we were dead in our trespasses” [Ephesians 2:4]. We were loved at the very lowest point of our lives. It is there that He finds us. Those who will admit no need cannot be found. That is true of me, and it is true of all of us.”

 “By grace you have been saved,” occurs in verse 5 and is repeated in verse 8. We are saved by grace, God’s unmerited favour, not by faith. It important to realize that faith is not another work, but is a response on our part to God’s grace which initiates our salvation. Faith is essential, but without God’s initiating grace it has nothing to hang its hat on.

What is said of Isaiah is true for each of us, “The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name” [Isaiah 49:1]. Paul repeats the same theme in Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” And note that we are individually foreknown and predestined to be part of the family of God, not to stand alone.

The focus is on God, and his work, not on us and our faith. Grace is God’s loving kindness towards us; the unmerited favour which he extends toward us. Our faith is only the connecting link, the channel through which grace flows. There is an important theological paradigm at work here: God initiates, Man responds. God’s steadfast love has been extended to you from the moment you were conceived. That is why St. Paul emphasizes that, “this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

_________________

Ephesians 2:4-10  4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved -  6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

Where Be All the Splinters of Bone?

Where be all the splinters of that bone, which a shot hath shivered and scattered in the air?  Where be all the atoms of that flesh, which a corrosive hath eat away, or a consumption hat breathed, and exhaled away from our arms, and other limbs?  In what wrinkle, in what furrow, in what bowel of earth, lie all the grains of the ashes of a body burnt a thousand years since?  In what corner, in what ventricle of the sea, lies all the jelly of a body drowned in the general flood?  

What coherence, what sympathy, what dependence maintains any relation, any correspondence, between that arm that was lost in Europe, and that leg that was lost in Afrique or Aisa, scores of years between?  … all dies, and all dries, and moulders into dust, and that dust is blown into the river, and that puddled water tumbled into the sea, and that ebbs and flows in infinite revolutions, and still, still God knows in what cabinet every seed-pearl lives, in what part of the world every grain of a man’s dust lies; and … he whispers, he hisses, he beckons for the bodies of his saints, and in the twinkling of an eye, that body that was scattered over all the elements is sat down at the right hand of God, in glorious resurrection.   

  – John Donne, The Resurrection of the Body, Sermon, 19 November, 1627

On Making Mistakes

I noticed with some amusement a mistake  I had made in an earlier article.  Apparently I quoted the Western “Dessert” Fathers, Instead of the Western “Desert” Fathers, saying, “If you have a snake or a scorpion, put it in a box and put the lid on it, and sooner or later it will die.”    I take it that the Western Dessert Fathers wore powder blue leisure suits and lived primarily on cheesecake and mimosas; while the Western Desert Fathers wore coarse garments, spent their time praying and fasting, and also recorded a few of their pithy sayings.

Everybody makes mistakes and even Smellcheck can’t catch them all.  Mothers and fathers make mistakes, old and young make mistakes, smart people and not-so-smart people make mistakes.  Lay people make mistakes.  Bishops, priests, and deacons make mistakes.  Pharisees and Sadducees make mistakes.  Making mistakes is a normal part of life.

Did I say, “Pharisees” make mistakes?  Here we have a problem.  Pharisees don’t accept a fact that is obvious to everybody around them, that is that even Pharisees make mistakes.  They also don’t accept that others are allowed to make mistakes.  The result is that they spend an inordinate amount of time correcting other people’s mistakes.  They live for the adrenalin rush that comes when they can point out the mistakes of everybody around them.

I once had a prominent and very devout church member who felt that it was his spiritual 

right every Monday, to present the Office Staff with a list of their mistakes in the Sunday bulletin.  Those who knew him knew that he had a few glaring flaws of his own, notably a lack of love and common courtesy, and a serious problem with shaming and blaming.  His attitude was like painting a “correct” smile on the Mona Lisa; it spoiled his reflection of the image of Christ.

The problem we face is that while some are blatant Pharisees, there is a little streak of the Pharisee in the best of us.  It is so very easy to cloak our own anxieties and feelings of inadequacy by critiquing others. 

Two things will help.  The first is the simple acknowledgement that everybody makes mistakes.  Second, we need to lighten up and develop a sense of humour.  Who knows?  There may actually be some Western Dessert Fathers who wear blue leisure suits, and live entirely on cheesecake and mimosas.

You Don't Know Alice

You don’t know Alice, but I did. Long ago she went to meet her Maker Who I am sure had some incisive questions to ask her. In the early nineteen seventies I was in a small parish in Massachusetts.  Alice was a member of our parish and for a number of years she had been a bishop’s secretary in a diocese in Pennsylvania. Her church experience was extensive, which is not quite the same thing as having a living faith. She had now reached her seniority and that point in life where she felt that neither tact nor courtesy should govern her words.

The encounter happened in the center aisle of the nave immediately after the Sunday morning service. She was fuming.  She started, “Young man . . .” and I knew immediately for a reason soon to be apparent that I was in trouble. “Young man. You not only talk too much about Jesus, you even make the mistake of praying to him.” She didn’t realize that what she considered to be a stern rebuke I received as a compliment.

What else is Christian faith about if it is not about Jesus the Christ. Take “Christ” out of “Christianity” and all you are left with is “ianity,” which is close to inanity. From the viewpoint of the Theologian Hans Kung, the question at issue is basic” “The wholly personal decision for God and for Jesus is the properly basic Christian decision: It is a question of Christian existence or non-existence, of being a Christian or not being a Christian” (Hans Kung, The Christian Challenge (New York: Doubleday, 1979), p. 260.)

If you truly believe the promise of Jesus, "Lo, I am with you always," why would you give him the silent treatment. As for the place of prayers to Jesus in our tradition consider the following from the Te Deum laudamus in The Book of Common Prayer. 

You, Christ, are the king of glory, 
the eternal Son of the Father. 
When you became man to set us free 
you did not shun the Virgin's womb. 
You overcame the sting of death 
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 
You are seated at God's right hand in glory. 
We believe that you will come and be our judge. 
Come then, Lord, and help your people, 
bought with the price of your own blood, 
and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.

What Pastor's Are Seldom Taught

I have sometimes thought that if I knew at the beginning of my ministry what I know now, I would have been much more effective. There were many things that seminaries don’t teach you; some of the things omitted were practical things like how to operate or fix office equipment, or the simple fact that the pastor is not going to fix people either. Sometimes the best you can do is to love them; but note, you have to love your God, yourself, your wife, and your kids, and your congregation, in that order; because if you invert the order you end up with a train wreck. One of the many things omitted is the following from the Rule of St. Benedict:

The Abbot, or any pastoral leader, or even any parent should give heed to St. Benedict’s advice, “He must show forethought and consideration in his orders, and whether the task he assigns concerns God or the world, he should be discerning and moderate, bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob, who said, “If I drive my flocks too hard, they will all die in a single day (Genesis 33:13). Therefore drawing on this and other examples of discretion, the mother of virtues, he must so arrange everything that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from” (RB Chapter 64:17-19).