Good Friday Year C

Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:42

Darkness is closing in.  Death is near.  He senses it.  He knows it is almost over.  The heat of the desert sun is sucking the moisture out of everything that is exposed to the bright rays of light.  The weight of his body has put a tremendous amount of stress on his bones.  As he tries to hold himself up to catch a breath of air, unimaginable pain runs through his body pulsing from his wounds, especially his feet as he tries to hold up his body.  Every breath is a challenge.  He has lost a fair amount of blood and sweat on his journey to Golgotha and while hanging on the cross for many hours.  His mouth is dry, lips chapped, head hanging, little strength left. Finally he proclaims “it is finished” and gave up his spirit.[1]

To say that today is a difficult day for Christians would be an understatement. Today we hear about the final hours of Jesus’ earthly life. The final hours that were full of torture and sacrifice. Those final hours that he endured for you and for me.

It is very tempting for us to shy away from the difficulty of today, especially while we listen to the scripture readings. We are tempted to gloss over the suffering of Jesus, the absence of most of the disciples, and the death of Jesus. We are tempted to ignore these facts and jump to the amazingness of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. We are tempted, but we cannot give into that temptation. This is something that I struggle with every year, so I am saying this as much to myself as I am to all of you... today we must sit in this space which is visually bare and scripturally painful before we can enjoy the days that are to come.

Reflection for Family Ministry e-news

Last week I was struck by an article that I read on Episcopal Café. The article is written by one of my friends from seminary, The Rev. Sylvia Miller-Mutia who serves as Assistant Rector at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. In her article Sylvia talks about a cycle she calls copy…claim…create, a cycle that she sees in ministry and throughout Jesus’ life. She describes these words as:

 Copy… like you’re playing a mirroring game, matching the movements of the person across from you…

Claim…like you’re taking what’s outside and drawing it into your own body, your own heart…

Create…like a seed planted inside you is flowering, and flowing out into the world.

I think this cycle is what we dream of for each and every person we know, especially children and youth. I commend this article to you in its entirety. It can be found at http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/parish_life/copy_claim_create.php

Peace,

Lauren+

Pope Francis

The first time Pope Francis addressed the people.

A new Pope for the Roman Catholic Church. This is huge! Pope Francis is the third Pope during my lifetime and I am excited to see what he will offer the RC church and the world.

A widely known fact, but never mentioned on this blog, is that I was raised RC. Most of my family members are still very active in the RC church and my niece goes to a RC school. I mention this as a way of explaining why, as an Episcopal priest, I would be so interested in the new Pope.

I am interested not only because he is the leader of a church I care deeply about, but also because he is an ecumenical partner to the Anglican Communion. I am hopeful that Pope Francis will bring reform to the RC church, especially in regards to how money of the church is spent. I am hopeful that he will be open to allowing women to serve in greater ways in the RC church. And I am hopeful that he will be a voice for the Latinos of the world who are often forgotten.

My bishop, The Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith (Bishop of Arizona), shared this prayer yesterday:

May his choice to model his ministry after St. Francis be a call for all Christians to be ever mindful of those who are poor and forgotten. May God grant him the courage and vision to lead his church in new directions of openness and inclusion of all, and may he be a willing ecumenical partner in spreading the Good News of Jesus. Amen.

This is my prayer for Pope Francis as well. I hope that you will join me in continuing to pray for his ministry.

I found the following links to be helpful in learning more about Pope Francis:

• Pope Francis' first 24 hours: Doing it his way
• Profile of Pope Francis from BBC
• Profile of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from National Catholic Reporter before being elected
• What it means for a Jesuit brother to become Pope 

Lent 4 Year C

Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Today’s gospel reading is perhaps one of the most well known stories in the Bible, certainly in the New Testament. This gospel reading speaks to each of us in a way that we can understand. We can understand it because Jesus uses a parable to make his point; he tells a story that is meant to be understood individually through personal experience rather than to be explained by him. Because of this each of us make our own connections to the characters or themes of this story.

As we listen to this parable it is possible that one of the characters reminds us of someone in our family. This connection between a character and a family member does not need to match with every detail of the story for us to make this connection. Perhaps you hear a cousin, or your mother, or grandfather in one of the characters. This is the beauty of a parable; it is a story, not a retelling of something that actually happened. And the beauty of a story is that we can change the characters a bit as we listen, which allows us to become part of the story.

Reflection for Family Ministry e-news

As baptized members of God’s family, we called upon to be a blessing to others, and in turn our families are blessed.  We are called to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being.  An important part of our preparation for Easter is sharing the good news of God’s love through Jesus Christ with those around us.  We do this in prayer, word and deed.  

Spend some time with your family remembering the ways in which each of you have been a blessing to others during the season of Lent.  Were you there with a hot meal for a neighbor returning from the hospital?  Did you pray for victims of war and violence you heard about on the news?  Were you kind to someone you didn’t know while shopping?  Did you clean out your closets and pantry to find clothing and food for ICM?  Did you listen to a friend at school who was having a tough day? 

 Next, plan how you will work together to be a blessing in the months to come.  Volunteering as a family is a powerful way to help children grow up to be caring adults.  And it is fun and rewarding to work together in service to others!  So ask around your school or ask Rev. Licia or myself to see what opportunities there are for your family to be a blessing to others and schedule it on your calendar as an important date! 

Peace,

Lauren+

P.S. If anyone in your family is interested in being baptized on April 7^th, please make sure to come to the baptism preparation class this Sunday at 10am in the Church Library.

Lent 3 Year C

Exodus 3:1-15, Psalm 63:1-8, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9

     Whew, there is a lot going on in these few verses. A lot of confusing things going on in these verses. Even as I was studying and meditating on these verses I found myself going in many different directions before I decided what to share with you all.

     For me the gospel can be broken down into two distinct sections and I think that each one carries its own message.  Let’s take a deeper look at the first section before we talk about the parable. When the crowd asks Jesus if the people who had died in a horrible manner were worse sinners than others, they are really asking is the age old question....“why do bad things happen?” At that time society believed that sickness or other hardships were caused by the sins of the person or sins of their parents... Remember the story of the man who had been blind since birth that was brought to Jesus? The people ask him who has sinned and caused his blindness, this man or his parents? Jesus responds by saying that neither this man nor his parents caused his blindness, and then returns his sight.

     In today’s world we continue to ask this question usually in some form of “why do bad things happen to good people?” We struggle with the idea that if God can help good things happen in our lives then does that mean that God makes the bad things happen to? Or is there sin involved? Or is it just a series of random events that just goes along with being a part of creation where anything can happen to anyone at any moment? Unfortunately, Jesus does not give a direct answer to all of these questions, and neither can I.