breath

 O

ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life;  (1928 BCP Marriage)

On the border now they talk of encounters with migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and the desperate wanderers. Encounters. Better perhaps than simply arrests, as many have entertained angels unawares. Today I encountered a man who asked directions to the bus station. I gave them to him. Then I thought, too late, that I could have given him a ride in the heat of the day. In the heat of the day, while he was sitting in the door of his tent, Abram encountered three men, strangers to him, who came to him in the midst of the country, and he offered them hospitality. The hospitality of his tent, his household, his family. Sometimes all someone asks of us is directions. Sometimes we are offered the chance to do much more. If we have eyes to see. The three strangers were indeed grateful for the hospitality they received and in turn gave a blessing only they could give. Your wife will at last bear to you the child you both have sought. And that child - through its descendants - will become the host of the world.

The Holy Spirit is the God we encounter. We have not seen the Father and Jesus, since his Ascension, has left us in the care of the Comforter, the Advocate, the one who comes alongside us as Teacher, and yet remains unseen. Unseen, that is, except through permeance. Permeating through all of our encounters with each other, and, all unawares, with angels. Pervading too all our days, ordinary and especially significant. Look through the prayer book pastoral offices and you will see the Spirit landing upon the Baptized, inhabiting the Confirmed, blessing the Married, consoling the bereaved and accompanying the Sick even unto the death bed. And it is the spirit of God that enables us in turn to comfort, celebrate, cajole, and encourage, the baptized, the married, the bereaved, the sick and dying, the joyous and even the indifferent. For the Spirit is here present among us, and through that invisible permeating influence God is here.

permeance

In preparation for officiating at a wedding I consulted a long out-of-print book, The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, and in the marriage rite I found a prayer that begins,

 

O ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life;  (1928 BCP Marriage)

Reflecting on that prayer, I realized that it applied well beyond that moment - that special moment indeed when we invite the blessing of the spirit upon the now-to-be wed couple. It applies to all sorts of occasions. And I noted that the spirit, the holy spirit, is there in the marriage rite, as it is in pastoral and episcopal offices of all kinds, from marriage to baptism to burial, reconciliation of a penitent and ministrations to the sick or dying, from confirmation to ordination to the celebration of a new ministry and the consecration of a sacred space. Some of these may come up soon in this congregation. 

And of course in our new (1979) prayer book all of these rites and offices take place in the context of the community that is gathered in the Eucharist. We are one body, and we are one in the Spirit. 

The Spirit gives us utterance in different ways, expressions in different gifts. The Spirit gives us understanding and inspiration in different ways and by different means. This is the one Spirit that God breathed upon the waters at creation, that inspired ecstatic prophesying - dancing and exclaiming in praise - inside and outside the camp on Sinai, that frightened the prophet Joel. 

This is the same Spirit that reversed the babble of the Tower into coherent speech for a diverse multitude on the first day of the church, the day of Pentecost.

It’s amazing! It’s as if you’ve been running around a foreign country and you’ve finally bumped into people who are speaking your language. 

We remember, as every school child must, that the feast of Pentecost expands for us the meaning of an earlier festival, the Jewish feast of Shavuot, that was a harvest feast at first, then became the day of thanksgiving for the giving of the Law to the people, through Moses, on Sinai. 

How is the gift of Law, of Torah, to a distant people at a distant time, almost mythical, to help us today? How is the experience of the gathered disciples and their hearers on the day of Pentecost, two thousand years ago, to make a difference to us now? 

Will we, gathered or scattered, hear, each in our own heart language, the word of God? Will we be inspired? Will we act - apparently crazy - as the Israelites did, dancing and singing and praising God? Will we - apparently sober - go out and do the things Jesus commanded us to do?

Will we visit the sick, pray with the despairing, speak out for justice, reach out to the lonely? Will we listen to each other in solemn assembly, seeking the guidance of the Spirit in our decisions? 

Will we have reason to? And how will we encounter the Spirit in our own life and times?

The Rev. Kaji Douša, senior pastor at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City, traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, in 2018 to provide pastoral care to asylum seekers. Douša has said, “To reject a migrant is to cast away God’s angels, which I am unwilling to do.” https://theconversation.com/when-faith-says-to-help-migrants-and-the-law-says-dont-203087

On the border now they talk of encounters with migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and the desperate wanderers who lose their way. Encounters. Better perhaps than simply saying arrests, as many have entertained angels unawares. This week I encountered a man who asked directions to the bus station. I gave them to him. Then I thought, too late, that I could have given him a ride in the heat of the day. 

There is a story in the book of Genesis. In the heat of the day, while he was sitting in the door of his tent, Abraham encountered three men, strangers to him, who came to him at the Oaks of Mamre, and he offered them hospitality. The hospitality of his tent, his household, his family. 

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

Sometimes all someone asks of us is directions. Sometimes we are offered the chance to do much more. If we have eyes to see. The three strangers were indeed grateful for the hospitality they received and in turn gave a blessing only they could give. Your wife, they said, will at last bear to you the child you both have sought. And that child - through its descendants - will become the host of the world.

We do not meet God in the person of three angels, dressed as strangers who wander through the desert. (Do we?) We do not meet Jesus in the flesh. (Though sometimes we wonder.)

The Holy Spirit is the God we encounter. We have not seen the Father, and Jesus, since his Ascension, has left us in the care of the Comforter, the Advocate, the Teacher; the one who comes alongside us, and yet remains unseen. Unseen, that is, except through permeance. 

Permeating through all of our encounters with each other, and, all unawares, with angels. Pervading too all our days, ordinary and especially significant. 

Look through the prayer book pastoral offices and you will see the Spirit landing upon the baptized, inhabiting the confirmed, blessing the married, consoling the bereaved and accompanying the sick even unto the death bed. And it is the Spirit of God that enables us in turn to comfort, celebrate, cajole, and encourage, the baptized, the married, the bereaved, the sick and dying, the joyous and even the oblivious. 

Look through the Episcopal offices and you will see the Spirit invoked upon the ordained, and the presence of the Spirit called upon to bless new ministries and sacred places.

Listen as we celebrate Eucharist, or say our daily prayers. You will hear the Spirit speaking. For the Spirit is here present among us, and through that invisible permeating influence God is here.

Hear the Word. Touch the cup. Taste the bread. Say “peace” to your neighbor. Come Holy Spirit. Come to us. Amen.

***

Sunday, May 28, 2023: for the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson, Arizona.

permeance

'Cause I feel like I-I've been running around a foreign country and I've finally bumped into two people who can speak English.  (https://transcripts.thedealr.net/script.php/yesterday-2019-XtmS)

Veni Sancte Spiritus (Taizé) Come Holy Spirit... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8yOAxWyfvA 

A meditation based on this sermon appeared on the Arizona Daily Star website June 4th 2023: https://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/encounters-with-the-spirit-are-all-around-us/article_a00ae510-ff02-11ed-a83c-2788b4905516.html

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Day of Pentecost (Whitsunday) Year A:

• Acts 2:1-21
• or Numbers 11:24-30
• 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
• or Acts 2:1-21
• John 20:19-23
• or John 7:37-39
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.Amen.

ascension

 After the Ascension we await the coming of the Spirit, the fulfillment of his promise. “I will not leave you orphaned.” He is gone and the Other has not come. Not yet. We wait in ambiguity - not with our customary pride in dwelling in ambiguity - in anxiety, in wondering, and waiting. Confident as we are in his promises, where is this promised Advocate and when shall our Comforter come? The disciples’ dilemma is much like our own, or much like that of anybody waiting in the in-between time between dream, promise, and fulfillment. They are, however, doubly bereft. ‘They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where to find him.’ Then he returns - joyfully, improbably, impossibly. A miracle. And it is said that for forty days he teaches them, in a new way, all that they did not realize that they knew. For it is the resurrected Jesus following the historical Christ who reveals what this is all about. Perhaps just by his presence, by the grasp that death has lost its sting. At least for a moment, at least where they’re concerned - for now. Later the persecution will come. Later they will die, naturally, or under torture, or whatever fate follows a follower of the resurrected one. They come to know all this. And still they follow him. There is nowhere else to go. Peter called it, long since. ‘Where could we go? You, Lord, hold the secret of eternal life.’ All else is not that. 

Jesus has ascended, but he has not left us bereft of comfort or of the power of the Spirit.

And so in obedience to that risen Lord, and in the hope of the resurrection and the promise of the Spirit, we still seek to follow the Lord, and his commandments, to love - to love God, to love one another, to love all of creation. It may mean witness, it may mean action, it certainly implies work… but not only work, but dwelling in the peace of the Spirit. We know that our redeemer lives, and on the last day, we will be raised: the promise will be fulfilled.

So in our lives we balance work and rest, prayer and work, peace and action. Yes we can. For in the Spirit, the Spirit promised to the first disciples and bestowed on the Church, we experience the power of God, in ourselves and in our world.

Job 19:25,26b-27a : For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ...in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another...

majestic harmony

Psalm 104:25-35 (Coverdale)

25  So is the great and wide sea also *
 wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
26  There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan *
 whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein.
27  These wait all upon thee *
 that thou mayest give them meat in due season.
28  When thou givest it them they gather it *
 and when thou openest thy hand they are filled with good.
29  When thou hidest thy face they are troubled *
 when thou takest away their breath they die, and are turned again to their dust.
30  When thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall be made *
 and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
31  The glorious Majesty of the Lord shall endure for ever *
 the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
32  The earth shall tremble at the look of him *
 if he do but touch the hills, they shall smoke.
33  I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live *
 I will praise my God while I have my being.
34  And so shall my words please him *
 my joy shall be in the Lord.
35  As for sinners, they shall be consumed out of the earth, and the ungodly shall come to an end *
 praise thou the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord.

Balance, proportion, harmony: day and night, land and sea, boat and sea creature, all are part of the progression of images of nature in harmony. What drives imbalance in this imagined world? Only humankind can break this Eden’s heart.

And so we do. But who shall free us from these bonds of sin? Only the same Spirit that breezed across the face of the waters of the primordial sea, only the Spirit that comes upon the assembled multitude of disciples like wind and tongues of flame, only the same Spirit that took Moses up into a cloud to receive the gift of Torah, only the same Spirit that Jesus, ascending into a cloud, bestowed upon his people.

Majestic in its sweep, magical in its harmony, the 104th psalm is a song of a world made by God and dependent on God. We, all creatures, depend on God for our being.

A marriage prayer in an old prayer book addresses God as “Creator and preserver of all humankind, Giver of all perpetual grace, Author of everlasting life” and in all those modes it is the Spirit that makes God known and makes the will of the Father and the obedience of the Son efficacious in our daily lives. 

We are confronted with a choice: to praise God and take our place in the natural order, or to consume ourselves with greed, ambition, folly, as we fend for ourselves – as if we could. All creatures, great and small, are part of the realm of God, made by God. Only humankind can ignore it - for a time. That is our unique freedom, a role we do not share. 

Unlike the lilies of the field, that gather not nor do they spin, humans are blessed - not cursed - to have a role in their own provision, in bringing forth bread for strength, wine for joy, oil to make faces shine, as co-creators in partnership with a heavenly partner. We alone can disrupt the harmony but we can also take conscious part in the song.

That is part of the message conveyed by the psalms, especially Psalm 104. 

In his visionary poetry William Blake conveys both the majesty and the mystery of God’s creative power. In one poem he calls us beyond the physical surface of things to its mystic meaning: what are the tents of Israel that shine so bright on the Red Sea shore? It seems that like the psalmist the poet sees a created world that has its source beyond itself, and to apprehend that source requires religion to mediate between other modes of perception and experience, including scientific, religious, aesthetic, and moral. That is, between cognitive - rational, emotional - affective, social-political, moral-ethical, and all other scopes of human experience, there can be one that, Spirit-infused, takes us past our own limits as creature or creatures, to apprehend in the light of divinity a purpose beyond the immediate, or indeed an inapprehensible mystery beyond the knowable.

Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of Light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

-- William Blake (1757 – 1827)

To an unknown god

When I was in high school I learned a new song. It was written for people like me. People who did not know much about Jesus. But people who could take a look around and wonder who he was, what it means …

"Have you seen Jesus my Lord?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnHB9YUtllE

John Fisher wrote the song while he was a counselor to junior-high students at a Christian summer camp in the Santa Cruz mountains. It spoke to them as it can speak to us. It is about how we can perceive Jesus, that is, how we can perceive God (in a way we may already have known him, without realizing that we have,) as we contemplate what is before us in the natural, that is, the created, world.  

Yes, we can see Jesus, the Christ, in the created world. He is the eternal Word through whom all things were made. 

“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:3)

Psalm 24:1-2

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

   the world, and those who live in it;

for he has founded it on the seas,

   and established it on the rivers.

The Apostle Paul preaches to the Athenians, the intellectually curious pagans who have altars to every single thing they can think of, even, to hedge their bets, ‘to an unknown god.’ But Paul tells them that the god they say is unknown is eminently knowable. 

Acts 17:24-25, 28

The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. . . ‘In him we live and move and have our being’.

Go outside. Look all around you. God is present in the world he has made. All things come from him. He is the God who is known in creation, in nature, as he is in compassion and kindness, in his Son, and in his Spirit. 

The unknown god is knowable, and known. (And indeed knows us!)

Paul does not promise to the Athenians that they will see the risen Lord. He says to them, the god you call unknown is revealed in creation. 

Of course no one has seen the Father, and Jesus is no longer among us in the flesh; it is through the Spirit that we experience God. It is through the Spirit that we come to know the unknown god, and his self-revelation in the risen Christ.

REDEEMER OF THE WORLD

On this the 7th Sunday in Easter season, we continue to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and ponder what it implies. What it implies, beyond ourselves, and our own hopes for the resurrection, to what it means for each other, our society, our world. 

We know that all of nature rejoices in the resurrection, but is it only humans that need to be redeemed and restored to the fullness of life promised in creation? 

Certainly nature - the rest of nature - is blessed by our restoration through Christ to fullness of life. The human stain of sin may affect other creatures, and certainly through our actions. How often do we forget to bless the Lord for the natural abundance of our world, even in its crueler manifestations. 

How often do we turn to the Lord and say thank you for the blessing of the sunset, or a moment’s breeze, or a first gasp of glimpse at the Grand Canyon - yet again as for the first time beyond our comprehension. 

How often do we forget that the earth is his? Not just ours to play with. Not ours even entirely to comprehend. Though we keep on trying. 

SHARING THE BLESSING OF THE RESURRECTED LIFE

As we here in Tucson contemplate the changes to our beloved valley and surrounding mountains, in the shadow of climate change, by necessity and with some form of respect for the earth, we think about what it will mean. 

We have more people and less water, more houses and less land to put them on, bigger businesses here and failing businesses there, and mining adventures projected both north (Oak Flat) and south (Rosemont). 

We in our various ways feel the anxiety - or the anticipation - of environmental changes all around us.

We have new buildings going up and old buildings… what of them?

Next door to my home is new construction. Custom homes. I’d rather they were further away. But further away is the hope of old construction, renovation by the Catholic Worker Casa Maria project, turning decrepit old motels into affordable housing for the homeless of south Tucson. 

https://casamariatucson.org/ https://youtu.be/SbaKXhS1xXo

In either place, with more optimism in the latter than in the former, I’d like to see the earth gently trod upon, not scraped clean, nor exploited. I suppose we all want that, when we can get it. 

But are we willing to pay the cost? It may mean giving up some open land or some easy profit. It may mean sharing the earth with those who scare us, and not just coyotes.  It may mean that the easy steps of consumer stewardship - food bank, clothes closet, recycling - need supplementing by harder measures. Choosing, on the consumer level, greener products, or at least reusing bottles and bags and other consumables, rather than throwing away yet more plastic. Practical steps like civic engagement, and collective action, to address the root of the problems we confront.

How then shall we live? Shall we continue to bless the Lord, touch the earth in reverence? Can we invite our neighbors to do the same? Will it mean something dramatic, like standing in front of bulldozers, or simply sharing space - living space - more efficiently and compassionately? 

In some parts of the world these questions are more urgent. On the West Bank settlers arrive to live in new homes, whether they are newly arrived from the new world, or finding their first safe home in the old. And yet displaced are other people, who have lived in the area thousands of years.  Who is right? Everybody? Nobody? How are we to live together? The system is unjust, how can we reclaim it? 

Some churches look into reparations, for what are called America’s original sins, of racism and the violent displacement of indigenous peoples. How? Compensate descendants of the exploited? Give a leg up, or special scholarships, to those who can use them? 

Closer to home, how do you and I bring the blessings of the resurrected life to our community? Look around again. We are facing challenges of immigration, land development, and climate change. What can each of us do, as citizens, as Christian people, as neighbors, friends, and family? 

In a world embroiled in original - and unoriginal - sin, can we live together? Yes, we can. I believe it is possible in the light of Christ, of truth revealing our folly and failings, and yet his redeeming power, at work in the world. 

We are part of love’s redeeming work. We are called, chosen - better yet invited - to be among the salt of the earth, not to hide our light under a bushel, but to ourselves be engines of restoration, of renewal, of grace. 

That can happen, as the spirit descends, and God stirs up his mighty power, to work through us and we, alongside his unfathomable actions, work to bring new hope to this old world. Through Christ, in the Spirit - that we await again today with anxious hope - it can happen.

1 Corinthians 10:26

For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. (KJV)

The earth and all that is in it belong to the Lord. (CEB)

JRL+

Sundays and Seasons https://sundaysandseasons.com

Edge of Enclosure http://edgeofenclosure.org/easter6a.html

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade, “Nature Reveals the “Unknown God”: Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21”

https://interfaithsustain.com/ecopreacher-resources/nature-reveals-the-unknown-god/

the fullness thereof

 1 Corinthians 10:26

For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. (KJV)

The earth and all that is in it belong to the Lord. (CEB)

Psalm 24:1-2

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

   the world, and those who live in it;

for he has founded it on the seas,

   and established it on the rivers.

Acts 17:24-25, 28

The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth. . . gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. . . ‘In him we live and move and have our being’.

During the season of Easter, we celebrate the resurrected Jesus, and ponder what it implies. What it implies, beyond ourselves, and our own hopes for the resurrection, to what it means for each other, our society, our world. We know that all of nature rejoices in the resurrection, but is it only humans that need to be redeemed and restored to the fullness of life promised in creation? 

Certainly nature - the rest of nature - is blessed by our restoration through Christ to fullness of life. The human stain of sin may affect other creatures, and certainly through our actions. How often do we forget to bless the Lord for the natural abundance of our world, even in its crueler manifestations. How often do we turn to the Lord and say thank you for the blessing of the sunset, or a moment’s breeze, or a first gasp of glimpse at the Grand Canyon - yet again as for the first time beyond our comprehension. How often do we forget it is his? Not ours to play with. Not ours even entirely to comprehend. Though we keep on trying. 

As we here in Tucson contemplate the changes to our beloved valley and surrounding mountains, in the shadow of climate change, by necessity and with some form of respect for the earth, we think about what it will mean as we have more people and less water, more houses and less land to put them on, bigger businesses here and failing businesses there, and mining adventures projected both north (Oak Flat) and south (Rosemont). We in our various ways feel the anxiety - or the anticipation - of environmental changes all around us.

Next door to my home is new construction. Custom homes. I’d rather they were further away. But further away is the hope of old construction, renovation by the Catholic Worker, of turning decrepit old motels into affordable housing for the homeless of south Tucson. In either place, with more optimism in the latter than in the former, I’d like to see the earth gently trod upon, not scraped clean, nor exploited. I suppose we all want that, when we can get it. 

But are we willing to pay the cost? It may mean giving up some open land or some easy profit. It may mean sharing the earth with those who scare us, and not just coyotes.  It may mean easy steps of consumer stewardship - food bank, clothes closet, recycling - need supplementing by harder measures. Choosing, on the consumer level, greener products, or at least reusing bottles and bags and other consumables, rather than throwing away yet more plastic. Civic engagement, and collective action, to address the root of the problems we confront.

How then shall we live? Shall we continue to bless the Lord, touch the earth in reverence? Can we invite our neighbors to do the same? Will it mean something dramatic, like standing in front of bulldozers, or simply sharing space - living space - more efficiently and compassionately? 

How in a world embroiled in original - and unoriginal - sin, can we live together? Yes, we can. I believe it is possible in the light of Christ, of truth revealing our folly and failings, and yet his redeeming power, at world in the world. We are part of love’s redeeming work. We are called, chosen - better yet invited - to be among the salt of the earth, not to hide our light under a bushel, but to ourselves be engines of restoration, of renewal, of grace. 

That can happen, as the spirit descends, and God stirs up his mighty power, to work through us and we, alongside his unfathomable actions, work to bring new hope to this old world. Through Christ, in the Spirit - that we await again today with anxious hope - it can happen.

The Rev. Dr. John Leech is a priest associate at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Tucson.

“I’ve been active in environmental stewardship since Boy Scouts & the first Earth Day, and love to help the people of God connect faith to action in their care of creation. Let’s green the church!”

https://azdiocese.org/creation-care/ministry-leaders/

Be engines of restoration, of renewal, of grace

https://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/be-engines-of-restoration-of-renewal-of-grace/article_fae090a8-f33f-11ed-aad4-4b1238f2b6e5.html

A version of this meditation was published in the Arizona Daily Star, May 20, 2023.