Servitude

Fr. Dunbar reminds us that "God does not want us to be his slaves" by using the illustration of the somewhat wayward Trappist monk who lived apart from his community and engaged in the sin of excessive letter writing (only 2 per month were allowed). By breaking the rules of man, and marching to the beat of a different drummer he was disobedient, but he was not cast out completely. He still chose to follow God albeit in a different way. If as Bobby says, God has freed us, have we become like the Christians of St. Augustine "free to do what we please." In this day and age doing what we please may not be pleasing to the Lord (oops there I go being servile). Choices abound... Bobby continues, "everything flows from God," so if we jump in and swim along, will we be taken to the sea where "go the ships" and "that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein." Psalm 104:26. Or can we fall in like so much flotsam more by accident and wind up in the same sea as the dedicated swimmers. I recall the saying that all religions are like streams or rivers. They all head towards the same sea. It would seem that the Spirit of Pentecost has blessed the water for us Christians. So do you jump in by choice, fall in by accident, or choose to stay on the bank and watch the waters flow? Once in the river do you go with the flow, swim upstream, lose it and drown, get out and dry off, or do you try to try to slow the torrent by building dams? (Dam builders beware, the Army Corps of Engineers will tell you that eventually all dams fail) Fr. Dunbar has again provided us with food for thought, and he did it in far less time than it took for me to post this comment.

Recommended Reading

When you have the time, digest this view of the state of TEC. http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/85/1/
I enjoyed the historical perspective as well as the explanation of TEC's schizophrenic appearing thought processes.

Ascension Sunday (the abridged version)

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief."~William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Although I applaud Charlie for attempting to create a new holiday tradition with the Feast of the Ascension, I don't think people will line up if the sermon runs too long.

Revelations

The richest part of today's service was not the sermon where we wallowed in our sinful and "perverted" ways. I thought the reading from Revelation was like hearing some one's dream of Heaven. (Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5) There was just this one unsettling part of the scripture. "But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." I think Charlie was trying to say that we repent of our sins, are forgiven, and when we repeat the sin, God will forgive us over and over again. So, will we humans ever be clean enough to enter the Holy City? What kind of abominable practice keeps a person out? Can a person rewrite the "Lamb's book of life?" Today's Baptism would have been a good segue to help explain this scripture to us poor pewsters. At least for an hour I was cleansed of sin. Now, here I go again..........

Oct 18 Feast of St. Luke

http://www.goarch.org/en/special/listen_learn_share/luke/learn/index.asp

Read the Hymn for this Holy day.

[1096]Holy Days: St. Luke292. What thanks and praise to thee we owe L.M. [1097]Ely: Thomas Turton, 1844 William D. Maclagan, 1873

What thanks and praise to thee we owe, O Priest and Sacrifice divine,
For thy dear saint through whom we know So many a gracious word of thine;
Whom thou didst choose to tell the tale Of all thy manhood's toils and tears,
And for a moment lift the veil That hides thy boyhood's spotless years.
And still the Church through all her days Uplifts the strains that never cease,
The blessed Virgin's hymn of praise, The aged Simeon's words of peace.
O happy saint! whose sacred page, So rich in words of truth and love,
Pours on the Church from age to age This healing unction from above;
The witness of the Savior's life, The great apostle's chosen friend
Through weary years of toil and strife, And still found faithful to the end.
So grant us, Lord, like him to live,
Beloved by man, approved by thee,
Till thou at last the summons give,
And we, with him, thy face shall see

Flying Solo

She had to wing it today as a solo priest, but Mary Cat gave a nice sermon sticking to the Gospel. Jesus' final commandment was that we love each other with "agape" type love. We have touched on this theme before. I think this is the hardest commandment to follow on a daily basis. People always seem to get in the way, making it hard to see the Holy in them (sometimes all we can see is the ...hole in them). Of course, we have Jesus' example to guide us, but we have to work at it. If we don't listen to Him, we run the danger of becoming like Linus Van Pelt saying, "I love mankind, it's people I can't stand."

Don't Leave the Episcopal Church! (It is just too much fun!)

The lunatics are running the asylum. The PB must be one if this article is true
http://lyflines.blogspot.com/ Oh sure, the rest of the world will catch up to the ECUSA in 50 years. Can she even imagine that 50 years from now the Church might turn in yet another direction? In 1957 America, who was the Jules Verne who predicted this day? The day where a divorced homosexual male Bishop of New Hampshire is going to get married to a man as soon as possible. The disgraced formerly married then outed homosexual, scandalized Governor of New Jersey wants to be an Episcopal priest? I will put on my "Man who Invented the Future" thinking cap and give it a whirl.
Dateline 2057: Wicca Priestess in the running for Episcopal Presiding Bishop. "Because of her love for all of nature, her deep understanding of the relationship between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, and her "commitment" to the mission of the ECUSA she is considered to be a leading candidate for Presiding Bishop. The only questions being raised center around the possible resumption of ritual animal sacrifice. This may not be an issue as the ECUSA has as it's mission to include all of God's creatures under it's roof. This is often interpreted as all "living" creatures, but is argued by some to include those recently dead or soon to be sacrificed creatures as well.
Current Presiding Bishop Smith welcomes the nominee saying "This is in the great tradition of the Episcopal Church. My many wives and I are in support of this candidate."