Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep... Rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost. — Luke 15:6b;9b

Jeremiah 4:11-12; 22-28
Exodus 32:7-14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

 

Note: This week’s resource corner includes texts from both Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) tracks. Typically, we read the RCL Track 2 texts at Trinity on Sundays.

As a parent, I have often felt frustrated when my children ignore my warnings. For them, parental caution, flowing from our hard-won wisdom, is almost like a dare. “What could go wrong?” they ask themselves. Does this sound familiar to any of you? In last week’s text from Deuteronomy, Moses encourages the people to “choose life.” This week’s readings from Jeremiah and from Exodus points toward the consequences of ignoring that exhortation.

Choosing life takes practice. Many of us know the saying, “practice makes perfect,” but what if “practice makes easier” instead? (This idea comes from Edmund Sprunger, a Suzuki violin teacher and writer who wrote, Helping Parents Practice: Ideas for Making it Easier (2005)). When we practice, we develop skills, and train our bodies to perform those skills with ease. In this week’s text from Jeremiah, God describes the people as “skilled in doing evil.” This skill must have taken practice to develop, which is a disturbing thought. Even the land shows the consequences of human skill at doing evil. How can we help our children practice doing good and choosing life instead of doing evil and choosing destruction? Jeannie Baker offers us some inspiration in an environmental sense, in her book Home. The story begins in a bleak urban landscape which corresponds to the desolation in Jeremiah. Over time, nurtured by cooperative effort, the landscape transforms and bloom.

When Moses is atop Mt. Sinai with God, the people convince Aaron to create a golden calf for them to worship, instead of God. Aaron, unfortunately, goes along with their request. God laments to Moses how quickly the people have forgotten and turned aside from the one who freed them from slavery in Egypt. In Beatrix Potter’s beloved Tale of Peter Rabbit, a similar plot unfolds. Peter’s mother warns her four children not to look for food in Mr. McGregor’s garden, lest they suffer the same grisly fate that befell Mr. Rabbit, who was caught and baked into a pie. Peter foolishly heads straight for danger. Instead of choosing life (blackberries and cream, with his sisters), he chose to court death in Mr. McGregor’s tempting lettuce beds. Fortunately, a chastened Peter escapes, but has lost his coat and frayed his nerves. His mother’s care – chamomile tea and an early bedtime – reflect God’s compassion on us when we go wrong.

In this week’s text from 1 Timothy, Paul shares a testimony of his own transformation. Before he knew Jesus, he says he was “a man of violence.” In other words, he chose death. After a dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road, God’s grace enabled him to choose life. His entire life changed for good. In her story, A Letter to My Teacher, Deborah Hopkinson writes about a student who always gets in trouble and the teacher who changes her life with patience and grace. Her teacher’s compassion sets the student on the path to become a teacher. We do not often hear personal testimonies of God’s grace in our Episcopal context. However, this week, I encourage you to remember instances of God’s grace expressed in your life and to share with your families how those experiences changed your life. Where has God found you? Who is God inviting you to become?

In this week’s text from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is criticized for eating with the wrong kind of people. In response, Jesus offers two parables — one about the lost sheep and one about the lost coin. When one sheep out of a hundred goes missing from his flock, the shepherd searches tirelessly until he finds the sheep. When a woman loses one coin out of ten, she does not stop looking until she finds the coin again. When the lost sheep or the lost coin is found, it is time to celebrate! Practice looking and finding (and then celebrating with a little dance party) with the book Spot, the Cat, by Henry Cole. Spot wanders far from home and around the town. On each stunningly illustrated page, you can search for Spot, and catch sight of his owner, searching the streets for his beloved cat. Have you ever searched for, and then found, a lost pet? How did you feel when you finally found them? How did you celebrate?

 

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Whenever possible we’ll share links to independent to booksellers. Please consider supporting local and other indepedent bookstores.

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

For who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted. — Luke 14:11

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. — Hebrews 13:2

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

 

Note: This week’s resource corner includes texts from both Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) tracks. Typically, we read the RCL Track 2 texts at Trinity on Sundays.

Though I rarely get to do it, I love working with clay. Maybe some of you remember the feel of working with clay on a pottery wheel, the process of throwing a pot, the frustration of needing to start over, or the excitement of firing the finished creation in the kiln. In this week’s text from Jeremiah, the prophet receives a word from the Lord to visit the potter’s house just when the potter had to rework a spoiled project into something new. Jeremiah must imagine God as a potter shaping and reshaping the people to bring God’s ways of life and love into the world. My Pen, by Christopher Myers, helps us to imagine God’s creativity and artistry transforming reality. (For those of you familiar with Harold’s Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson, this book is a fresh take on the idea that artistic creativity changes reality.) Starting from a meditation on feeling a bit small and powerless compared with rich and famous people, the narrator uses line drawings to express the power of imagination and love.

For older readers, Linda Sue Park’s story, A Single Shard, offers a reflection on how creativity transforms even the artist. Set in Korea, the story follows an orphan named Tree-ear, after he accidentally shatters a pot in a master potter’s studio. How will he repair the damage? How will he change in the process? In spare, evocative prose, Park transports readers across time and space as she narrates Tree-ear’s journey. As you reflect on God’s creativity, you might wonder together how you can participate in that creativity this week. Ask where you see God transforming the world already and then brainstorm about ways you can partner with God’s work in the world.

In this week’s lectionary text from Deuteronomy, Moses exhorts the Israelites to “choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deut 30:19) in the promised land. Moses knows that this is not always easy, and that in their desert wanderings, the people did not always choose life. In fact, Moses himself will not get to enter the promised land with the people because of his own disobedience to God’s command. As parents, we often tell our children to follow certain rules for their own good, and I’m sure we’ve all experienced the frustration of our children ignoring our instructions. How can we help our children understand the love lying behind the rules we enforce? Especially when the choice to be naughty is tempting. In That Is NOT a Good Idea, by Mo Willems, invites young children to join a chorus of chicks watching a situation unfold between a fox and a goose. Mo Willems’ trademark humor and illustrations will be familiar to fans of Gerald and Piggy, or the Pigeon. Other books with a similar story line to try are Chanticleer and the Fox, by Barbara Cooney, and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, by Beatrix Potter.

For older readers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, is a zany romp through Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with Charlie and the other winners of Mr. Wonka’s coveted Golden Tickets. When they begin the tour, Mr. Wonka issues a warning, reminiscent of the warning Moses issues to the Israelites. The children and their chaperones are about to enter the promised land of sweets. If they want to get through the entire factory tour, they must follow Mr. Wonka’s instructions exactly, or chance the consequences. Who will make it past the (legion) temptations to stray from the path inside and who will succumb? No spoilers here. This book makes a great read- aloud!

Paul’s epistle to Philemon is the shortest book in the Bible. The lectionary reading for Sunday contains almost the entire book! In spite of its brevity, the book gestures toward several profound transformations—spiritual, physical, and relational. However, these incredibly complex changes happened in ways that might be invisible to other people. Onesimus was Philemon’s former slave who ran away and has become a follower of Christ while he was in prison with Paul. Can Philemon look past his memory of the Onesimus he used to know in order to welcome the transformed Onesimus? This question of perception, of past and present selves, is tricky indeed. For kids, coming back from summer to a new year at school might provide practice in getting to know familiar faces in new ways. Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s optical playfulness in Duck Rabbit! offers another way to explore this concept. Rosenthal incorporates visual puzzles into her story to help young readers think about differences of opinion and perception. You might wonder together how this story helps you recognize people in new ways, as beloved by God.

For older readers, Gordon Korman’s book Restart takes on the challenges of transformation through the story of Chase, a school bully who falls off his roof and develops amnesia. He forgets everything about who he was and who his friends were. As he experiences school and friendship from a totally different perspective, Chase has the opportunity to develop new habits of compassion and kindness instead of returning to his old ways of bullying. This middle-grade book offers opportunities to discuss power dynamics, fear, bullying, and repairing relationships. Parents and teachers might wonder with kids about how we can encourage fresh starts for each other and practice habits of compassion together.

Choosing life, being transformed and reshaped by God, seeing people in new ways—all these things connect to the theme of sacrifice. This week’s reading from Luke’s gospel points directly to this theme. The way of life is difficult and sometimes requires sacrifice. Luke’s Jesus exhorts his followers to consider that cost, so that we are not taken by surprise later when we realize we have to sacrifice things we love to keep following him. In our culture, this concept of sacrifice is very hard to learn and to teach. When my second child was less than a year old, they were diagnosed with severe food allergies, so we had to change our ways of cooking and eating in order to keep Teddy safe and healthy. This was a tremendous sacrifice for my oldest child, who loved peanut-butter and jam sandwiches for lunch. If you have had to give up favorite foods, you might enter a discussion about sacrifice from that point. Ginger Foglesong Gibson imagines another possible access point in Tiptoe Joe, a sneaker-wearing bear on a mission to show all his animal friends a surprise. But only if they can follow quietly. Shhhh! At the end, we all get to see what Tiptoe Joe wants to show us – new bear cubs, sleeping in the den! When we welcome siblings into a family, our entire rhythm has to change to accommodate the new, tiny person. If you are in this stage, or about to enter it, you might imagine creative ways to change as a family. What about having special quiet reading time during the baby’s naps? Or what about putting together a “nap time box” with a few special, big-kid toys that only come out during naptime? Play “Yes! And...” with your oldest kid(s) to figure out what things they might like to do as they adjust to the new family size. If it’s been a while since you had to navigate this kind of challenge, you might wonder about how this concept of sacrifice for others plays out in our church community – what will it be like to welcome new people to Trinity? If there are things that have changed recently, how have you adjusted? What changes felt like sacrifices and what changes were a relief? What did you learn about yourself and about our community as a result?

 

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Whenever possible we’ll share links to independent to booksellers. Please consider supporting local and other indepedent bookstores.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

For who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted. — Luke 14:11

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. — Hebrews 13:2

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

 

When he first learned to talk, my youngest child used to run after his siblings calling out, “Do not forget me!” He was tiny, but he did not want to be left out by the fast-moving big kids. In his own way, he understood the concept of “forsaking” which appears in this week’s text from Jeremiah. God’s message, through Jeremiah, is that the people have forsaken God for other, lesser, small-g gods. Heidi McKinnon’s quirky book, I Just Ate My Friend, looks at this concept from a bizarre angle. Monster has just eaten his friend. Well! That is a tricky situation. While eating your friend is not exactly forsaking them, it is similar enough to facilitate a lively discussion and prompt a few giggles.

In this week’s epistle and gospel readings, the themes of hospitality and inclusion are central. At Trinity, Rev. Paul reminds us each week, “at this table there are no outcasts, strangers, nor unwanted guests. All are welcome to come feast at the table of our Lord, so please do come and be fed.” Our Rector emphasizes this radical welcome at Trinity because of the radical welcome which Jesus practices and exhorts his followers to practice. The letter to the Hebrews reminds readers that by showing hospitality to strangers, we may entertain angels in disguise, or messengers from God, as in the story of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18). Kerstin Chen’s book, Lord of the Cranes, beautifully illustrated by Jian Jiang Chen, tells of a generous innkeeper who welcomes a raggedly dressed beggar. As you read, you might wonder together how this story is similar to other stories you know. How might we welcome strangers and newcomers to our church community? What would help you to feel welcome if you visited a strange place?

Jesus attends a banquet in this week’s text from Luke’s gospel. He notices how his host was treating the guests and shares a parable and then gives some very specific instructions about how to extend a proper welcome. (The assigned lectionary leaves out a few verses. If you’d like to be a biblical detective, you can hunt for this passage and read the missing verses.) As you listen to this scripture reading, what clues do you hear about the welcome Jesus received as a guest? What does he remind us to do when we host? Daniel Miyares’ hauntingly illustrated book, Night Out, explores the concept of hospitality and welcome through the loneliness of a boy away at boarding school for the first time. This book contains sparse text and rich illustrations, so it is accessible to very young readers. As you read this story, you might wonder how loneliness is connected to hospitality. You might share memories of extravagant welcoming and being welcomed. What did it feel like to offer welcome? To receive abundant hospitality? Remember, you carry that sense of welcome with you wherever you go in the world and offer it to friends and strangers. Who knows, you might end up welcoming an angel in disguise!

 

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Whenever possible we’ll share links to independent to booksellers. Please consider supporting local and other indepedent bookstores.

Evening Prayer is Back

 

Daily Office Academic Year Schedule Starts Monday
It’s the return of Evening Prayer!

As you know, I'm an enormous booster for the Daily Office. It's a way of setting apart time to spend with God each day, and to spend time with Scripture. Through the Daily Office, if you come regularly you'll hear most of the Bible over the course of two years. You'll also pray through the Psalms every 7 weeks. It has really changed my life, and with the change back to our program year, back to school, and the like, I invite you to give it a try and see how it changes yours. We have some Trinity parishioners who are there every day as part of their morning routine.From here on out, we will be using a hybrid format for the Daily Office.

If you'd like to pray with others in-person, we’ll meet in the Michael Chapel weekdays at 7:45am (MP) and 5pm (EP). But if your work schedule, location, or family situation doesn’t make in-person prayer feasible, you can still join us online. You can also call in by phone at one of the numbers below. We've tried a ‘soft launch’ of this format over the past week, and it works well. We have a new crop of enthusiastic seminary students who will be leading us as part of their training for ministry. I will be there as part of my vows in the Society of St. Mary Magdalene, and I hope you'll be there too! Give it a try.

 
 
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Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. — Psalm 103:8

Jeremiah 1:4-10;
Hebrews 12:18-29;
& Luke 13:10-17

 

Can you imagine receiving a sacred call as a child? In our culture, we often ask children what they will be when they grow up, but we do not often ask how God has called them. When Jeremiah heard God’s call, he was only a boy. Initially, he protested that he was too young, but nevertheless, the scriptural account of his life as a prophet narrates how he lived into God’s call. Aileen Weintraub’s book, Never Too Young! 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference, offers a compendium of stories about kids who changed the world at young ages. As you contemplate and discuss these stories, you might wonder how God is calling you now. Weintraub offers a few questions at the end of the book that facilitate brainstorming together. If you discern a call from God with your children or grandchildren, how might you support each other as you follow that call?

When we try to hear God, we practice a particular kind of holy listening. It can be hard to hear God’s “still small voice” amid everyday whirlwinds. The author of the letter to the Hebrews exhorts their readers to cultivate this kind of listening and writes, “see that you do not refuse the one who is speaking.” In Don’t Squish the Sasquatch, Kent Redeker and Bob Staake hilariously illustrate the consequences of not listening, of refusing the one who is speaking. Their book connects well to the warning from Hebrews, while also injecting a welcome dose of giggles for young readers. After reading this story, you might wonder together about warnings. What warnings do you hear most often? How can warnings protect us? What happened when you ignored a warning in the past, or when you followed one?

Usually, good listening requires being quiet and attentive. Because it is so hard to find quiet, some places (libraries and places of worship) are often set aside for quiet. Then, when an unexpected noise interrupts the silence, it seems like a rule has been broken! Michelle Knudsen’s story, Library Lion, takes place in (you guessed it!) a library, where being quiet is the rule. One day, the lion breaks the silence with a huge roar, and Mr. McBee, who loves the quiet of the library, throws him out. It turns out that the lion roared in order to get attention for someone who was injured. This story of a rule-breaking lion connects well to the text from Luke’s gospel for this week. Jesus breaks the rules in order to heal a woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Even though some of the leaders were angry with him, Jesus demonstrated that showing compassion should not be limited to weekdays. When we show compassion to those around us who are suffering, we do God’s work. Have you ever followed a rule that stopped you from showing compassion to someone? Have you ever broken a rule in order to show compassion? Has someone else ever broken a rule to show compassion to you? How did those experiences affect you?

 

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Whenever possible we’ll share links to independent to booksellers. Please consider supporting local and other indepedent bookstores.

Why the Lectionary?

 

Recently, a wonderful question landed in my email inbox:

Why do we read the Old Testament, Psalms, Epistle, and Gospel every week in church?

One of the gifts of our liturgical tradition, a gift that we share with the Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, and others, is the use of the lectionary. Every week, a cycle of readings prescribes what Scripture we hear in church. While some of the details of the how the lectionary works have changed over the years, one thing has stayed the same. The church, not the clergy, chooses the Scripture we read publicly in worship. This means that what we hear proclaimed as the Word of God isn't down to our whims or personal preferences - we all have to wrestle with the Bible together, in its entirety. What's more, using the lectionary means that we hear from all parts of the Bible, and not just our favorite bits.

We read the Old Testament…

…because it is the story of God's enduring faithfulness in choosing Israel to be his people, and as Christians we read the Old Testament as those who in Jesus Christ are grafted onto the promises of Israel. Not to take them over, but to take our part in a conversation and a covenant that has been going on long before us. The Old Testament also reminds us that there is one God, and that the God we see revealed in Jesus is the same God who called the prophets and let Israel out of bondage.

We read the Psalms…

…because they are our greatest treasury of songs of worship. But they also remind us that the life of faith is a life of joy and sorrow, anger and reconciliation, tears and shouts of joy. John Calvin says that in the Psalms, "there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror." Another very ancient way of reading and hearing the Psalms is to imagine that Jesus is the one speaking. Try it sometime and see if your experience of the text changes!

The Epistles…

…connect us to the very earliest churches, and in them we see that the first Christians encountered the same challenges that we do today. They are some of my favorite parts of Scripture, as they set out what it means that God is with us and for us in Jesus. When we say that they are "the Word of the Lord," we acknowledge that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit and can speak to us now, just as they did for the first readers.

Finally, we hear the Gospel —

…the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. We stand for the Gospel reading as an acknowledgement of their place at the heart of our faith. But, having heard the other Scriptures read as well, we also acknowledge that they don't stand alone. They stand within the story of God's acts: past, present, and future. Scripture helps us to interpret Scripture, and the more we can explore the relationship between the texts in the Bible, the more we can grow in relationship to the one who inspired them.

Do you have a question about the Bible, theology, or the church? Email me!

Kickoff Sunday with Kaya Oakes

 

It's a tremendous joy to announce that our Kickoff Sunday speaker for 2022 will be Catholic author, journalist, and academic Kaya Oakes. Here's a bit of the profile from her website, oakestown.org:

Kaya Oakes is the author of five books, most recently including The Nones Are Alright (Orbis Books, 2015) and Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church (Counterpoint Press, 2012). The Defiant Middle: How Women Claim Life’s In Betweens to Remake the World, was published by Broadleaf Books in 2021. Her sixth book, on the limits of forgiveness, is forthcoming in 2024.

Kaya’s essays and journalism have appeared in The New Republic, Slate, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Sojourners, National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, Religion Dispatches, Tricycle, On Being, America, and many other publications.

Since 1999, Kaya has been a faculty member in the College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley, where she teaches creative nonfiction, composition, and research writing. She has also been a distinguished visiting writer in nonfiction at St. Mary’s College as well as guest faculty at Bellarmine University and The Jesuit School of Theology at the Graduate Theological Union. Kaya was born and raised in Oakland, California, where she still lives.

Kaya's own journey has taken her from an Irish Catholic childhood, to atheism, and back to the Catholic Church as an advocate for social justice and marginalized voices within the Church. She is also a faithful friend to Christians of all denominations who works in both ecumenical and interfaith contexts. Please join us Saturday, September 10 (time TBA), and Sunday, September 11 (at the 9:30 forum) for a special East Coast visit with Kaya Oakes!

Find out more about Kaya's books here: oakestown.org/books

And read some of her articles here: oakestown.org/essays

The Philadelphia Eleven

 

On July 29, 1974, eleven women were ordained to the priesthood by Bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert DeWitt, and Edward Welles II in a service at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia. The “Philadelphia Eleven” were the first women ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church: Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeanette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig. At the time, the cause of women's ordination was gathering steam, but General Convention had not yet approved it. These ordinations were at first considered "invalid," but then declared to be "valid but irregular" because they followed the ordination service in the Prayer Book and were performed by bishops in good standing. Just two years later, in 1976, General Convention officially approved the ordination of women, and the ordinations that had taken place earlier were regularized.

Yesterday, we remembered those eleven. We give thanks for the women who said yes to God then, so that many others who stand on their shoulders could say yes to God now.

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