When You Remember Me

In Memoriam
Frederick Buechner
1926-2022

Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,

Earlier this week, the world lost an icon of the faith — Frederick Buechner. Over the years, Buechner has been for me a faithful and wise companion and guide.  Buechner touched the lives of countless believers and non-believers, seekers and sojourners.  Buechner was gifted, by the Holy Spirit, to speak to our human condition in a way that very few can. He could read your mind and know your heart as if he actually resided within the innermost parts of your truth. 

Buechner attended the Lawrenceville School, Princeton University, and Union Theological Seminary.  He was a “Presbyterian minister who never held a church pastorate but found his calling writing a prodigious quantity of novels, memoirs and essays that explored the human condition from inspirational and often humorous religious perspectives … Likened by some critics to the works of Mark Twain, Henry James, Elizabeth Bowen and Truman Capote, Mr. Buechner’s novels were admired by loyal readers for their elegance, wit, depth and force. His more homiletic memoirs and essays reached much larger audiences of Christians and consumers of religious books, even though he did not hold orthodox religious views” (The New York Times).

            On this day, I invite you to join me for a time of prayer in thanksgiving for the life of a faithful follower of Christ and a steadfast herald of God’s love and Good News.

When you remember me, it means you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

Rest in eternal grant to Frederick, O Lord;
And let light perpetual shine upon him.
May his soul, and the souls of all the departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace

In Christ,

The Rev. Paul Jeanes III, Rector

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“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

“Wherever people love each other and are true to each other and take risks for each other, God is with them and they are doing God’s will.”

“The world says, the more you take, the more you have. Christ says, the more you give, the more you are.”

“Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.”

“If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.”

“Go where your best prayers take you.”

“If you want to be holy, be kind.””

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

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The Challenge of Baptism

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ!

I am writing to you from Bethany Beach, Delaware.  Being able to come out here and decompress, if only for a few days, is such a gift.  Sitting at the water this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about baptism – and not just because we have a baptism this Sunday (everyone get excited!  It is always a great gift to welcome a new member of the family).  Our Gospel reading this Sunday mentions baptism as well: Jesus foreshadows his Passion, saying, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”  More on that in the homily on Sunday. 

One other thought on baptism: in his final sermon before his assassination, titled, “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. details the struggles of the Civil Rights movement and the Poor People’s Campaign.  About halfway through the sermon, King speaks specifically about the encounter with the notorious Bull Connor in Birmingham.  In what amounts to some of his most apocalyptic rhetoric (ask me more about that in person), King writes:

I remember in Birmingham, Alabama … by the hundreds we would move out.  And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around.”

Bull Connor next would say, “Turn the fire hoses on.”  And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history.  He knew a kind of physics that didn’t relate to the transphysics we knew about.  And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out.  And we went before the hoses; we had known water.

What King is talking about here is exactly the power of Baptism, or rather, the challenge of it.  In baptism, we, as St. Paul puts it, die to ourselves and are born in Christ.  We are baptized into his death and his resurrection, which means that the whole world is transformed.  King knew the stakes of his baptism.  He had lived it for years.  But he also knew its promise: that he would not be overcome, for Christ had been raised from the dead.  No water could harm him – he’d already known it.  Death was no threat.  In baptism, Christ’s resurrection had annulled all fear of it.  And as King’s life is an ever-present witness to, when the fear of death is taken away, so too is the fear of the Enemy.  And there, exactly there, is where baptism works: it frees us to love our neighbour. 

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday.  Enjoy your forgiveness – and your freedom!

Peace in Christ,
David King, PTS Summer Intern

Fellowship Is (Also) Formation

They love their friends truly who love God in them, either because God is already in them, or in order that God might be in them.

— St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 361.1em>

At the heart of [abundant life] is friendship. For it is through friendship that our willful loneliness...is overwhelmed. Friendship is not the desperate attempt, based on our presumption we must manipulate another to recognize us, but rather friendship in the Christian tradition names such an engagement that we call worship. For it is in worship that we discover that we are related to one another in ways that we could not imagine, by being made friends with God through the sharing of the body and blood of Christ. That is why the world should stand and wonder of these people called Christian, because they would say see how they love one another. How wonderful it is to simply be given in this life something to do. We can pray. We can worship. We can be friends, because those are not activities that can be used up.

— Stanley Hauerwas, “Abundant Life,” Lecture at the Trinity Institute

In the past, we've shared with you before the four pillars of spiritual growth: weekly participation in the Eucharist, engagement with Scripture, regular prayer outside of church, and fellowship. Much of our adult formation programming has focused on the first three of those pillars: the sacraments, the teachings of the church, Scripture, and prayer. But now we are coming back together after a time of being apart, of having opportunities for fellowship tragically limited. What’s more, we have heard from many of you about how much you wish we had more opportunities to be together as a community. This year, we’re going to do something about that.

Christian friendship is one of the greatest gifts we can share with each other — an opportunity to know each other and to be known, a place to grow towards God together. This, too, is formation. It’s a way of learning by doing, by loving one another in a Christ-shaped love.

Both in our Adult Forum time between services, and in other gatherings throughout the program year, we will have the opportunity to be with each other. For some, this may mean renewing old friendships. For others, it may mean getting to know the Trinity community for the first time. Here are a few fellowship ‘teasers’ for the coming year:

• First Sunday breakfasts will return with no agenda, just good conversation.

• Common Grounds Café will return to the other half of Pierce Hall between the services.

• Book groups will return for learning and small group discussion.

• Fellowship and social opportunities will be expanded for members at various stages of life — from children, youth, and families, to 20s and 30s, to older parishioners.

• And, of course, we will celebrate throughout the year with the special events you know and love around the holidays and at other times.

It is our hope and my prayer that in the year ahead, each member of Trinity will find one place where they can grow in Christian friendship with others. And if you have ideas, please give Paul, Joanne, or me a shout. We want to hear from you - and we're excited about everything coming up in the fall.

The Rev. Cn. Dr. Kara N. Slade, Associate Rector

P.S., What’s the deal with the postcards? If your last name starts with "A," you might have already received a postcard from us. Or, you might receive one soon! We have begun the process of slowly praying through the entire parish roster at Morning Prayer. We'll send you a postcard to let you know that your name was lifted up in prayer that day at Trinity Church. Hopefully it will come as a reminder of God's love for you - and of our love for you here at Trinity.

Be It Resolved

Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
　　a single bird on a wire
　　left by migration behind.
Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
　　and peace an abstraction
　　while war is real;
Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas I am afraid;
Whereas I am free — despite all
　　fire and anger and fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
　　shall be my calling — a song
　　not yet made shall be vocation
　　and peaceful words the work
　　of my remaining days.

— Kim Stafford

Kim Stafford, now Poet Laureate of Oregon, wrote these words many years ago. This poem was first shared with me by a favorite friend and mentor when I was a young priest, and I have treasured it ever since, for it seems always to be applicable to the strife and striving we live with as Children of God.

It is common for folks of faith to carry talismans of sorts with us where e’er we go — prayer cards in a pocket, bible verses in our hearts, crosses around our necks — all familiar to me. And I carry poetry — in my wallet, in the console of my car, in the heaps of papers on my desk, held by magnets on my fridge... And whereas strengthening poetry is meant to be made known; whereas I have shared this in the ePISTLE once before, let me share it with you again this summer, that a song will be your calling, and peaceful words the work of your days.

In Christ,

The Rev. Joanne Epply-Schmidt, Associate Rector