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.

Grace

We had quite a lively discussion yesterday morning as our Thursday study group continued to tease apart the story of the Prodigal Son. As discussions often do, ours became wide-ranging and a bit off track. At one point, Elizabeth asked us to consider God's grace....what grace means to us. That question brought back the very clear memory of a similiar discussion several years ago in a Methodist adult Sunday School class. The topic was grace and the workbook we were using explained the three types of grace: justifying, sustaining and prevenient. This made made no sense to me and actually pushed me onto my current path of making sense of God in simpler ways and by simpler definitions. I Googled grace this morning and found even more confusing defintions of it: actual grace, common grace, free grace, irresistible grace. Too complicated for my simple mind! So, I ponder....what does grace mean to me? My answer: grace is my awareness of God's presence in my life. It can be seeing this cross in Cenevieres and remembering God. It can be hearing the bells calling villagers to Mass and remembering God's call to me. It can be that feeling of contentment as I snuggle into bed at night knowing that once again God has blessed me this day with family and friends, home and health, warm sunshine and green growing things. I am aware that His grace surrounds me always; that all I am and all I have comes from Him. And that I don't have to earn His blessings...to have His grace in my life, I only have to be aware that I am His.

Living Into Relationship With God

I"ve been thinking a lot this past week about my invitation to live in relationship with God. We talked about this in the Thursday morning study group: how God invites us through Christ into a relationship with Him. Of course, I accept this invitation and feel blessed by it. But...what exactly does a relationship with God look like? My wonderings took me to the various relationships in my life. I have casual relationships with people in my community, i.e. shopkeepers, the postmaster, the guy at the gas station. They are based on respect and being cordial. I have friends and acquaintances; those relationships are based on this as well adding a sense of caring, some common interests, being friendly. I have a handful of deep friendships that take this even further with compassion, the love of agape, support, acceptance. Familial relationships run the gamut of the love of siblings, parents, children, and grandchildren....unconditional love, loyalty, feelings of wonder and joy, support that elevates to "I'd do anything for my child, parent, brother, granddaughter." Family relationships tolerate the messiness of life and celebrate the pure joy of being together. Family relationships that tolerate dissent and disagreement; that at the end of the day are relationships that gather everyone around the table to share in a common life.

So where does a relationship with God fit in? I think this snippet from John 21:1-19 that Mary preached from last weekend gives me a clue: "That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. Yes, exuberant Peter ran to the Lord! But being eager for this spiritual relationship is not the clue. We all know that often Peter didn't 'get it.' He was so human...just like me. He denied, he was ashamed, he felt unworthy. So he felt he had to 'put on some clothes, for he was naked' before he approached his Lord. Peter illustrates what takes a relationship with God far beyond even the unconditionally loving relationship we have with family...it asks us to let ourselves be naked and vulnerable before God, to strip away all the false selves, the defenses, the wants and desires of the world that we surround ourselves with and come to God as His precious child, His creation. To accept that God loves us just as we are, without our 'clothes.' To know that He, unlike anyone else in our lives including family, is totally trustworthy, always loyal, ever present. To accept that God knows us like no other, that with Him we don't need excuses or defenses; that with Him we don't even need words. Relationship with God is love and compassion, unconditional love, joy, community, acceptance and support. And it goes far beyond those things. It asks us to be in relationsip with God totally stripped and vulnerable, knowing we are safe within His care.

Now...the Rest of the Story

Easter Sunday has passed. We've walked through the times of hosannas and the times of sadness. We've supped with Jesus, broken bread, and washed feet. We've watched him be flogged, crucified, mocked...then laid in the tomb. The Cross is empty and so is the tomb. The Easter story has ended. Or has it? As Easter people, our story is just now beginning.  We walk away from the cross and out into the world. Now is the time to live the rest of the story as Christ taught; to love God and to love our neighbors. I like to think this fisherman that I saw along the Mediterranean coast last September was starting out on his journey to 'fish for men,' just as Christ instructed his disciples. Christ has invited us into a relationship with God, the Father. Now is the time to accept that invitation, to leave Easter and live in relationship with God in the world.

The Road to Easter

I've spent the past two days pondering the road I walked this year to Easter. For the first time, I'm not planning my life around a work schedule, so I took this opportunity to plan my life around the Holy Week services at my church. I attended and read at the "Journey to the Cross" service on Wednesday. I participated in the Maundy Thursday service. Good Friday found me at the "Stations of the Cross" service at noon and then back to church at 7pm that evening for Tenebrae, a service of readings and music. As that service ended, the altar was stripped bare, all the candles were extinguished and the congregation left in darkness and silence. Saturday night I returned for the 8pm Easter Vigil. Again with stories and sung liturgy we were moved through the Easter story. Then with great fanfare....trumpets and glorious music by the choir... the altar was redressed, the candles were lit, the lights came up, we were blessed by sacred incense and purified by sprinkled Holy Water. Easter arrived....Alleluia! We then celebrated with champagne and treats in the Parish Hall. More than once during this week of stories and song, I was moved to tears at the tenderness and passion of the journey to the Cross. More than once, I was touched by light moving into darkness and back into the Light once again. For the first time in my faith life, I felt both the pain and the joy of Easter. I'm thankful for the unique combinations of events that made this walk to Easter possible.

The photo is of a drawing done by a parishoner of St.Timothy's altar, cross and bricks.