Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dr. Foss vs. Dr. Dyer

It took all of the endurance referred to in Luke's gospel to get through today's diatribe. While listening to a passionate recitation of our failings, flaws, corruptions, I was kept thinking of what Dr. Wayne Dyer would say. (Actually, someone lent me an audio book of his, and I have been enduring Dr. Dyer for the past week.) It is therefore only fair to pit Dr. Dyer against Dr. Foss in today's battle of the network stars. In one corner you have Dr. Dyer with his 28 books, endless PBS shows, all arising from the idea that positive begets positive, and that there are no bad things, just opportunities for growth. In the other corner we have Charlie Foss who admits that he fears death, has to deal with death on a daily basis, and has to deal with people and all their "faults" (what Dr. Dyer might classify as educational opportunities). To Dr. Dyer, Charlie's words in his sermons betray a negative imbalance. I keep hearing the message that we are foul, greedy, prejudiced human slime.
The moment came to me today when Charlie spoke of the miracle surrounding the founding of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour. The question of how those women managed to raise the money for a church during the devastation of the reconstruction (keep your minds out of the gutter folks) is a question right up Dr. Dyer's alley. At that precise moment, the bells rang from one of our church neighbors as if to commemorate the sacrifice of our founders just as we did last week for Armistice day. It was one of those moments where Dyer say I was "in spirit." Unfortunately, this week the sermon did not stop for a moment of silence, and the feeling passed.
Dr. Dyer wins the first round. I believe that this week's sermon needed a dose of his positive vibrational energy. How can we provide these good vibes for future sermons? Starting today, I have decided to channel positive energy prayers towards Fr. Foss. During future sermons, I will no longer count the negative words and phrases. From now on I will hear words of beauty flowing from a cleansed no longer "filthy" tongue. God will no longer "spit on us", but will kiss us instead. The sanctuary will be blessed with the love of the founders of our church. The congregation will be filled with pure hearts. When Charlie looks out from the pulpit he will see Christ in us. I will pray that we all can truthfully say "We will with God's help" when we renew our Baptismal covenant as we did today in response to the question "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons...?"

2 comments:

  1. off topic but...........


    If you were wondering what The Episcopal Church's main website is recommending for Christmas reading then click here: http://www.episcopalbookstore.org/wc.dll?main~bd
    and scroll down to the second book: "The First Christmas - What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Birth" by Borg & Crossan. Crossan asserts that Jesus was really the product of Mary's rape by a Roman soldier and the Apostles stole his dead bones from the tomb. Borg believes that Jesus is a nice "myth" we should follow!

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  2. Crossan certainly knows that sex sells. Borg also has a nice career in looking for Jesus in all the wrong places. I need to start putting them into my positive vibrational wavelength as well. I have more hope for Borg as soon as I typed that!

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