Help, Thanks, Wow

The well-known Christian author and speaker Anne Lamott often says that three simple words lie at the heart of the life of prayer: Help, Thanks, and Wow. This has been the case throughout Christian history, even though we might use different terms to talk about the ways we pray. There is a particular pattern of prayer that seems almost to transcend time. In its most basic shape, it has three simple, but essential parts: supplication (help), thanksgiving (thanks), and doxology or praise (wow).

 When we pray, our first instinct is usually to ask God for something. But on what possible basis might we dare to approach God in prayer? Because God is the Creator and we are creatures, what emboldens us to ask something of God? The answer is simple, and we can see it in the pattern of the Daily Office: we ask for God's help in prayer. We ask for God to draw near to us, so that we can be drawn nearer to God. "Lord, open our lips," we pray each morning in the Daily Office, asking God to make possible the prayers to follow. 

But our supplication - our prayers for ourselves and for others - are intertwined with our prayers of gratitude. We dare to approach God in supplication because we also recognize God's faithfulness to us. And so, we render our “humble thanks for all of God’s goodness and loving-kindness, to us and to all that God has made.” (BCP, 101) Thanksgiving and supplication go together. 

But we don’t stop there. Supplication and thanksgiving also draws us towards doxology, or praise. When we pray, we don’t seek guarantees so much as ask that God’s will be done. We place before God the hopes and needs of our hearts and minds, knowing that all we are or hope to be will be caught up in God’s desire for us. As we offer our supplications and then let go of them, allowing them to take their place in the larger story of God’s goodness and loving-kindness towards us, it leads us to praise. It is as if we have prayed and now say to God, “come what may we praise you, we bless you, and we give thanks to you, Lord our God.”

As you pray this month, both in church and in your own private devotions, I hope you will pay attention to this rhythm of prayer, all of which draws us into closer communion with the God who calls us to be his holy people. 

Yours in Christ,

Kara 

Waffle House!

One of the great gifts of the South is Waffle House. Every time I find myself back "down South," as they say, my Waffle House radar is activated. Open 24 hours a day, Waffle House serves as a safe harbor in an often unpredictable world. People come in at all hours, for all sorts of reasons, and each one of them has a story to tell.

It's early Friday morning, and here I sit in a Waffle House. Some are here after a long night shift, and others getting ready to start their day. A woman sits alone at the counter, meticulously wiping it down as she prepares her glass of sweet tea, and awaiting her scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. The waitress approaches me with a lightness in her step and asks, "Can I get you some coffee, honey?" I place my usual order, and she replies with a smile, "Ok, baby, we’ll have it right up for you." Moments later, faster than expected, the cook brings over my eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. "Here you go, sir. I hope it’s OK. Is that bacon too crispy? I’m happy to make more if it’s not right."

Before long, Lonni, the cook, and I strike up a conversation. I ask, "Do you mind if I make a video?"

This moment reminded me of a video I had made early in my sabbatical, also during an early morning at a Waffle House. Life comes full circle in these quiet, simple moments.

 We all have a story. We have dreams and people we love. We want to be happy. We want a good life and a better one for our children. We’re all just trying to make it in this world, and with a little dignity. Whether you're dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant or sitting in a booth at Waffle House, that’s not the point. It’s about living your life with the people you love, having a dream, and trying to make that dream come true.

 I pray that Trinity Church is a place where people can come as they are, with the truth of their lives, their hopes and dreams, fears and struggles, sadness and joy. A place where, together, we find a safe harbor, and even more so, a home. A home to ground and sustain us on this amazing, challenging, unpredictable, and blessed journey of life.

Peace and Blessings,

Paul

P.S. Just before I left, Lonni came over and said, "Hey, nice talking to you. One day, I want to go back to Michigan. I want to open a diner—like one of those 1950s vintage diners." I gave him my number and said, "I’ll pray for you. You’ll do it! And when you do, call me. Because I’m coming."

On Friendship Human And Divine

“Friendship is genuine only when you bind fast together people who cleave to you through the charity poured abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.” - St. Augustine, Confessions, Book V

This has been a difficult week for me. We are approaching the first anniversary of our beloved Sonia Waters’ death. Then, my dear friend Fr. Everett Lees of the Diocese of Oklahoma died, only a couple of weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Everett leaves behind his wife Kristin and three young children, and I ask your prayers for them all. He was a loving husband and father, but I knew him as the kind of friend who helps everyone around him be a better Christian. It was true for his parishioners at Christ Church Tulsa, it was true in the Diocese of Oklahoma, and it was true in the Episcopal Church where he was a tireless advocate for evangelism. Christ Church has been one of the fastest-growing congregations in the Episcopal Church, in no small part because of Everett’s relentless focus on what Good News it is to be made a new creation in Christ. 

St. Augustine tells us that true friendship is found not when we love our friends for worldly reasons, to gain some kind of advantage or favor. Friendship, by which he means Christian friendship, is a model of the friendship between humans and God. We love our friends because we love God in them, and because we love each other towards God. Sonia and Everett were both the kind of priests, and the kind of friends, who loved people towards God - who drew out the best in everyone around them. 

This isn’t a grace that comes only to members of the clergy - far from it! I suspect that each one of us can name people in our lives who have loved us towards God. But it can take intentional action as well as prayer on our part to be that kind of friend to others. I hope that in the year ahead, Trinity Church will grow not only numerically (which, praise God, it is!), but in the kind of friendship that helps us grow in holiness, and in the love of God. It may not be the only way we can experience the truth of the Gospel, but it is one way. As Stanley Hauerwas writes,

“I do not think that questions concerning the truth of Christian convictions can be isolated from what is necessary to sustain friendships that are truthful. I am not suggesting that Christians can be friends only with other Christians. Some of my most cherished friends are with non-Christians. Rather I am suggesting that if what it means to be a Christian is compelling and true, then such truthfulness will be manifest and tested through friendship.”

Your friend in Christ,

Kara

P.S. This interview with Fr. Everett on what makes a good church is outstanding and I commend it to you:

https://bencrosby.substack.com/p/church-growth-discipleship-and-the.

Kick-Off Sunday

Dear Good people of Trinity Church,

This Sunday, as you well know, is kick-off Sunday! With the celebration of Labor Day, summer is “officially” over yet we long to hold on to it.  School buses are back on the roads, football season is underway, and fall is just starting to make its presence felt. All of this signals that it’s time for us to come together, to recalibrate, and to prepare for the year ahead. It’s a moment to open ourselves to the possibilities of what God may have in store for us as the people of Trinity Church.

As we live into this new year, I am reminded of the words of the Celtic teacher, J. Philip Newell, who writes, “At key moments of transition in the history of Christianity, inspired Christian teachers have asked, ‘Who is Christ for us today?’” We now find ourselves in such a moment—a significant time of transition not only within the Church but also in our nation and the world. Newell goes on to say, “What are the brokennesses of our world today? What are the battlefields among the nations and the gaping wounds of creation’s body? What are the discords in our communities and the struggles in the most important relationships in our lives?” There is work to be done, Good News to be proclaimed, and love to be shared!

As we embark on this new program year, what will be our role and responsibility in this season? Who is Christ for us today? The ability to articulate clearly and embody fully the answer to that question will determine who we are and what kind of church community we will be.

I so look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

It’s good to be home. 

Let’s go!!

Peace and Blessings,

Paul

Sabbatical Reflection

Dear Good People of Trinity Church,

What an incredible few months it has been! My sabbatical has been a time of profound renewal and joy. It has given me the precious gift of time—to reconnect with my own soul and to share special moments with my family. I’ve traveled more extensively and flown more miles than ever before in my life.

What has made this journey so wonderfully liberating was the knowledge that I have a home and a community filled with love and support. As John O’Donohue beautifully writes in To Bless the Space Between Us, “Home is where the heart is. It stands for the sure center where individual life is shaped and from where it journeys forth.” 

The certainty of our home in Christ and within our beloved Trinity Church community frees us to fully embrace the adventures that life presents, wherever they may lead. We find our grounding and assurance in life’s uncertainties because we are always anchored in God’s love, no matter where our path takes us

Well now the time has come for my travels has come to an end and blessedly the journey has brought me and my family safely home. It’s good to be home! 

I look forward to being with you all on Sunday, September 8th as we Kick-Off our program year and open possibilities of where God will lead us this year!!

Peace and Blessings to all!
Paul

Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous Love

Sing, my soul, his wondrous love,

who, from yon bright throne above,

ever watchful o'er our race,

still to us extends his grace.

Heaven and earth by him were made;

all is by his scepter swayed;

what are we that he should show

so much love to us below?

God, the merciful and good,

bought us with the Savior's blood,

and, to make salvation sure,

guides us by his Spirit pure.

Sing, my soul, adore his Name!

Let his glory be thy theme:

praise him till he calls thee home;

trust his love for all to come.

https://youtu.be/865z0idLQf8?si=gFs_XTJRjT-TvJXJ

The author of this hymn text, published first in 1800, is unknown.  I find it to be a tremendously beautiful reflection on God’s goodness to us.  Life is complicated, and sometimes it’s difficult beyond measure.  This text reminds us that the bedrock under all that is the love of God, and the beauty to which that love gives birth.

As we approach kickoff Sunday (just a couple weeks now - it’s on September 8 this year), I find myself thinking about why I do what I do, and why church matters.  For me, the core of this is recognizing the beauty and goodness that God gives us, and how we express that as God’s people.  Music is often spoken about as a “language beyond words” and there is truth to this.

Choral music has a particularly effective role in communicating meaning because it pairs art forms together.  With choral music, we have the combination of “pure” music with poetry.  When finely crafted words come together with music written specifically to amplify their meaning, we get a 1+1=3 effect.  I think there is a parallel here to the effect God’s love has on our lives.  This is what happens when we welcome God’s love and share it within community: the cumulative impact we have becomes greater than that of the individual efforts we put in.

As we embark on this coming program year, with all its gifts and also with the challenges it is sure to bring, I hope we can dwell in the abundant goodness of God’s love, and use every opportunity before us in turn to share it.  Each week, as the choirs of Trinity Church sing in our liturgies, know that our music is given as a gift, both to our community and to God, as the very best reflection we can manage of the beauty of God’s love.

Here’s a link to a setting of the above poem by Sarah MacDonald, which the choir will sing on kickoff Sunday this year.  I hope you enjoy it!   

Looking forward to all that this year holds,

Meg

Saying Yes to God

This week, the church calendar invites us to focus on Mary, the mother of our Lord. On Thursday, we observed the feast of Saint Mary with a wonderful Eucharist in the chancel. Forty-three (!) people came out to hear the story of Mary’s “yes” to God, to sing, and to pray. But on Wednesday, our focus was drawn to Mary as well. That’s because on August 14 each year, the Episcopal Church commemorates Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a young seminarian who became a martyr during the civil rights movement in Alabama. 

You can read more of his story here, and I hope you do. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Daniels) He was valedictorian of his class at Virginia Military Institute, and after some struggles with his faith and sense of vocation, he began attending what was then called Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During an Evensong service in Boston, he clearly heard God’s call to an active role in the civil rights movement. He writes, 

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." I had come to Evening Prayer as usual that evening, and as usual I was singing the Magnificat with the special love and reverence I have always felt for Mary's glad song. "He hath showed strength with his arm." As the lovely hymn of the God-bearer continued, I found myself peculiarly alert, suddenly straining toward the decisive, luminous, Spirit-filled "moment" that would, in retrospect, remind me of others--particularly one at Easter three years ago. Then it came. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things." I knew then that I must go to Selma. The Virgin's song was to grow more and more dear in the weeks ahead.

Jonathan Daniels traveled to Selma to help register voters and stayed for a semester. He was shot on August 20, 1965, at Varner’s Cash Store in Hayneville, AL, while protecting an African-American teenager named Ruby Sales.  His murderer, Tom Coleman, was acquitted by an all-white jury. 

The lives of the saints, including martyrs like Jonathan Daniels, are stunning portraits of what a “yes” to God looks like. My friend Rob MacSwain OGS of Sewanee argues that the lives of the saints are a kind of proof of God’s existence, because these are the kind of lives that would not make sense otherwise. And Mary’s “yes” to God stands as the paramount example of saintly life. Without Mary’s “yes,” the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ and the salvation of the world would have been impossible. (Whether or not God had a backup candidate in mind is an interesting question best left to speculative theologians!) Her response to God is also a pattern for the Christian life. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams writes, 

Only three human individuals are mentioned in the Nicene Creed, Jesus, Mary, and Pontius Pilate: Jesus; the one who says yes to him; and the one who says no to him. You could say that those three names map out the territory in which we all live. Through our lives, we swing towards one pole or the other, towards a deeper yes, or towards a deeper no. In the middle of it all stands the one who makes sense of it all, the one into whose life we must all try to grow, who can work with our yes, and can even overcome our no.

I pray that as the summer draws to a close, you will find new ways to say yes to God, as God’s invitation to us comes new every morning. 

Yours in Christ,

Kara

An Inside Job

At this time of the summer in Year B of the Lectionary, we hear Gospel lessons that seem to say the same thing again, and again, and again. This month, we hear different parts of Jesus’ discourse in John 6 where he tells his followers that he is the bread of life. For the preacher this can create something of a dilemma: is there that much to say about bread? It may create the same dilemma in the hearer.

But these saying of Jesus are so important, so central to our faith, that they bear reflecting on over a period of time. Indeed, they bear reflecting on for our entire lives. What a great mystery, what a miracle, that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us in such a profound way. God is not aloof; God feeds us and sustains us with this bread that leads to eternal life.

Brother Seraphim is an Eastern Orthodox monk at Mount Tabor Monastery in California. On the monastery’s blog, he writes about the traditional clay ovens used to bake flat breads. These ovens, called tandoor in India or tannur in Iran, are used throughout South Asia and the Middle East. They are traditionally buried in the ground, and the bread is baked on the walls of the oven above the fire. The bread is pulled out of the oven with a hook at the end of the baking process. Baking in this way, he writes, is an “inside job,” carried out within the earth and sometimes hidden from view - just as our own transformation in the sacraments is carried out by what we Anglicans call an “inward and spiritual grace.”

Baking bread with a mostly-buried oven: that’s an “inside job.” Eat the body and drink the blood, in Holy Eucharist, in the consecrated Bread and Wine, and He will be doing an inside job on you. The dough has to be heated and baked. We have to endure some sufferings and hardships; Jesus did so, for us. That is how the dough develops into wholesome bread; that is how we develop into purity that can see God…and into closer union with our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. The bread may be poked by that hook tool; we may be poked by the crosses we carry, to follow Christ. The bread rises. May we rise, too, into everlasting glory with our Savior and all the holy angels and saints.

May the God who has begun such a marvelous “inside job” in all of us continue to draw us ever closer, as we are fed with that wondrous bread from heaven.

In Christ, and in Christ alone,

Kara