The Parable of the Goats

Yesterday as Lucie and I were on our walk, we heard a strange crying sound. We had heard it briefly the day before at the same place on the road. It sounded a bit like a child in distress. I immediately began listening closer...was it a child? If so, should I investigate? Could it be the youngster who lives up the hill in the old farmhouse? I began making my intervention plan.. Then I listened closer. No, not a child. Maybe an amorous cat? I could ignore that. Maybe it's one of the neighbors calves, maybe it's caught someplace. More thoughts swirled in my head. I started formulating another plan. As we turned the corner, I was still deep in thought, pondering next steps, when out of the woods popped a herd of little goats! Surprise! Lucie barked, I yelped, the goats bleated and cried before running away down the road. I quickly recovered my composure, grabbed Lucie, and soon the little guys came back to have their heads rubbed and to nuzzle for food. Surprise...that funny sound was goats! Who would have thought that? I'd never seen goats anywhere along this road.

Isn't life a bit like my goat story? You have a problem to solve. You ponder, you think, you worry and fret. You make plan after plan. You lose sight of the here-and-now because you're so engrossed in figuring out your issue. Then out of the blue....God surprises you with what He wants, His plan. His surprise is often better than anything you have even imagined. His surprise is always the right answer to the dilemma. Sometimes His surprise is simply a wake up call to remind you that you are not in charge here....He is. No one says you shouldn't work to solve problems or have goals to achieve. But the moral to this parable is you should always leave yourself willing and open to be surprised by God. What surprises does God have in store for you today?

Confirmation

Today was the culmination of nine months of study for the 17 young people who were confirmed this morning during Pentecost services. You may remember a blog post that I wrote some months ago about being asked to mentor one of these aspiring Confirmands. Elizabeth assured me that I could do this; I was not convinced, but after praying about it and discussing it further with Elizabeth, I decided to take a leap of faith and give it a try. Over the past few months, Lexi and I have gotten to know one another and talked about how each of us came to be  Episcopal and to St. Tim's, she knows my favorite color and I know hers, and we've discussed different ways to pray. She told me how the class tried various positions for prayer including laying face down on the floor and that everyone promised to keep their eyes closed so no one would feel self-conscious. I told her about Centering Prayer and she found that intriguing. We attended a worship service together at our local Jewish synagogue. I spent a Saturday in February with Lexi and the rest of the Confirmands and their mentors on retreat at Wesley Woods. Elizabeth was so right; I not only did this mentoring thing, I loved every minute of it. And no surprise...I feel like I gained so much from my time with Lexi and the other kids; gained more than I gave in fact.

Today I went to the altar and laid hands on Lexi with all her family as she was confirmed and received as an adult member of St. Timothy's. She did the hard work; I'm very proud of her. I couldn't help but write one last piece of advice in the card I gave her:

As you continue your journey through life, if you keep your eyes on the Light of Christ, you'll always find safe harbor.

Is God Pleased?

My moment to ponder from last Thursday's study group came not from our lengthy discussion about social justice issues, nor from our intense discourse as we continued to delve into the story of the Prodigal Son. It came as I listened to one of our members speak about her recent trip to Italy. As she talked about visiting museums, cathedrals, amd the duomos of Rome and the Vatican, she recalled that someone in her group asked: "Do you think that God is pleased with all this lavish show of wealth?" I was immediately transported back to 2005, my first trip to Paris. I went with an opinion...that wealth should be spent on caring for the poor rather than on ornate, ostentatious Gothic churches. I based this on a comment I remembered from deep in my childhood. My grandparents had just returned from a trip to Europe, and my grandmother exclaimed that the Vatican should be ashamed of its wealth and should be using it to help the poor Catholic people of Rome! As I sat in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, I remembered this comment while I gasped in awe at the beauty around me. Was there value to the poor in this beautiful place? Was God pleased that money and time were spent to create this beauty? My opinion is that God absolutely is pleased when anyone creates beauty in His honor. Why else would He have blessed mankind with the ability to create? My opinion is that God is absolutely pleased that even the lowliest Parisian laborer had the opportunity to work for God's glory during the construction of places like Notre Dame and Ste. Chappelle. My opinion is that God is absolutely pleased that His church becomes common ground for all people, all sinners whether rich or poor, titled or anonymous. As I wrote in my travel journal on September 18, 2005:

"....it moved my soul. Suddenly I 'got it;' the epiphany of why these early churches were so lavish and overdone. This was the sanctuary of the poor, the one place they could come & not only see the beauty of God's creation, but also find His presence in their otherwise miserable lives of poverty, hard work, and suffering. And their alms and work helped make this glorious place. I see the Church as a buffer, a meeting place to tone down the excesses and extravagances of the wealthy and provide beauty and sanctuary for the poor. I felt moved and privileged to share this great cathedral with the countless souls, both rich and poor of Paris who have worshipped here since 1163. As the people came forward for Communion..... I thought of the thousands who have come before trodding the millenium-old tiles seeking forgiveness for transgressions common to all of God's people, rich or poor. In God's eyes---all are equal."

Yes, I think God is pleased whenever people create beauty in His honor. I think He is pleased when each gives of his time or talent or money to produce that beauty. Were there excesses and extravagances in the Church? Absolutely....that's what the Reformation was all about. But in Paris in the 12th  and 13th centuries, the Reformation was 300 years away; God was pleased.