A Shoot from the Stump

From 605 B.C. to 586 B.C. a period of 19-20 years, were some of the most horrific in the history of the Jewish people. Before this time, the Jewish people were prosperous. In recent memory was the time of King Solomon and all his riches. Crops were fertile, people’s bellies were filled, and families prospered. It was in this time that the Babylonians struck Judea. In three waves over two decades they descended with their superior armies and ravaged the land, destroyed Jerusalem, burned Solomon’s temple, killed thousands upon thousands, and those they didn’t kill they hauled off into slavery. When they were finished, the holy land was left a void, barren, wasteland of death. To make matters worse, the linage of King David, to whom God had covenanted that his line would rule over Judea forever, had been ended by this murderous foe.

It is into this scene of despair and horror that the prophet Isaiah writes his visions. A shoot shall spring forth from the stump of Jesse. Jesse, was of course the father of King David. Isaiah now prophesies that a shoot shall come forth like a flower springing up from the ground scorched after a fire. A shoot of hope. Light in the darkness. Isaiah doesn’t know how this will happen but he knows it will happen. And he knows this person on who all their hope will be laid will be different. This person will not judge by what he sees or hears. This person will not be like other people, he will have a wisdom and a connection to God that we can’t understand. This person will not just restore Israel, he will user in an era of profound peace. This new era will not just bring about an end to war but an end to the brokenness of our world. An end to violence, disease and death. The lion and the lamb will lay down together. This person will not only bring hope but he will bring about eternal restoration, eternal love, and peace.

Of course, we know that the person Isaiah is speaking about is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. As followers of Jesus then we ought to ask ourselves how we can be like the vision Isaiah. How can we be the shoot that comes forth from the stump? How can we see without our eyes and hear without our ears?

One way of doing this is to live into our calling to be in a constant state of awareness that the world is not what it seems. Christians are called to see beyond matter and physics to the realm of the spiritual. The realm of God where love and grace and holiness abide and emanate into our world. And when we are able to experience that reality, we cease to be small helpless creatures, insignificant in the grandness of the cosmos and in the deepness of time. Instead we become part of something much greater. We become part of the fullness of God. We become part of God’s reality, God’s kingdom, God’s infinite love. And when we show that love to the world we really can be that shoot from the stump, we really can be one who sees and hears differently from those around us. One full of wisdom and grace.

Advent

As we near the end of the month of November our attention turns to the holiday season. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year will soon be upon us. Planning for festivities to come is not only a cultural necessity but can have a spiritual benefit for us as well. The spiritual side of our holiday preparation can be found in the concepts of hope and expectation. As Christians, we are a people of hope and longing. We hope that the peace of Christ will one day reign on earth as it does in heaven. We long for the day that Christ will return and restore our reality to the blessed peace it once was at creation.

There are many traditions in this season of longing and waiting. In times past Advent was a more penitential season where, like lent, people waited in fasting and self-denial. In stark contrast, today we have the Advent calendar, where we comfort ourselves in the waiting with rationed portions of daily chocolate. Still other traditions people observe are to pour themselves into all those holiday plans. People send cards, have holiday parties, travel to see family, purchase gifts, and so much more.

This year as you go about with all the activity of the holidays, think about what you are really preparing for in the arrival of Christ. In all your holiday plans, have you included any spiritual preparation? This year why not take some time to think and pray about what we ought to be doing if we really knew Christ’s return was imminent. How might that change our lives and how can we use that thinking to draw us closer to Him who we will one day see again.

May God be with you in this season of waiting and expectation. 

St. Michael's New Gospel Book

Several months ago, on the advice of my spiritual director, I set out to do something creative. After speaking with one of the artists in our congregation, we came up with the idea of a gospel book for the church. Since St. Michael’s style is more wood than metal, we thought working in that medium would be best. The pictures you see in this article of the finished product. I thought it might be fun to share them with people here.

Description:  Gospel books are part of the ancient traditions of the Christian Church. In the past, as well as today, they are often made from a number of materials and are ornate, expressing a number of different aspects of the faith. The gospel book below contains a mold of a carved icon of the Christ Pantocrator, or Almighty. This is one of the oldest icons of the church and depicts Christ holding his gospel. The image reminds us of our patristic past and seems fitting for a gospel book. On the reverse side of the book we find the image of the Celtic cross. Crosses are common on gospel books and this one serves to remind us of the Celtic influence on our tradition. The other inlays are comprised of various woods and are covered in resin. These designs are merely ornamental in nature and connect the book to the architecture in the building for which it was designed.

Unleavened Bread

"Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:6b-8)

As Israel fled their enslavement in the land of Egypt they did not have time to prepare all they would need for their journey. One of the things that had to be skipped was adding the yeast to the dough of their bread because they would not have had time to let the bread rise before baking it. In Jewish tradition, this imagery of removing the leaven from the bread during the Passover meal has remained and the symbolism attached to it during Jesus’ day and ours is that the yeast or leaven represents the sin and evil inside us. Therefore, in this passage, we are encouraged not only to remove what is corrupt in us, but to live a life that reflects that absence.

In the church, this imagery of the unleavened bread is also reflected in our Eucharist. This Sunday, as you gather at your church to celebrate the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection, I hope you will reflect on this passage and all the symbolism that adorns this service. As we meditate on these things and celebrate the risen lord, may we do so with more than just our regular pomp and circumstance, but also with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth in our heart. 

I Find God on the Golf Course

I find God on the golf course better than I do in church. That phrase, or something like it, seems to be common these days. In fact on my summer vacation I struck up a conversation with a fellow Episcopalian and asked her if she was going to the community bible study where we were staying. Her reply was no. She then went on to tell me she rarely attends church and instead takes a walk in the woods once a week to be close to God.

While it might be simple for clergy like me to dismiss such sentiments as missing the point, perhaps the reason for this growing phenomenon, of finding God in nature as opposed to church, is one that ought to be considered more closely. People, it seems, are not only longing for God but are also feeling disconnected from the natural order of our world. While those two things may be separate from one another they are also closely related. After all, God is the divine creator of all things. God created nature and us as a part of this world. Despite that fact, many people today are completely isolated from the natural world. For instance, we live in climate controlled homes, drive climate controlled cars, and eat food we don't grow or rarely see growing. It seems that so many of our environments are controlled, artificial, or virtual that the natural world is almost alien to us. And if we can't know the world God created for us, how can we know our creator? As we consider that reality, it’s no wonder people need nature as a first step in their spiritual lives. However, to simply stop with the love, beauty, and glory we see of God in nature is to dramatically short change ourselves. For if we stop with the natural revelation of God we may never really know the divine revelation waiting for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is the knowledge of that divine revelation which gives us a greater hope, joy, and faith than nature ever can. For this reason the church spends a great deal of time seeking to grow closer to God by learning more about him. Through learning more about God we come to find a deeper need for meaningful worship. In learning more about God we enrich our theology, expand our ability to pray, and deepen our commitment to healing our broken world. 

A Time for Retreat

As we enter the summer months the church's liturgical calendar turns to that season called “Ordinary Time”. It is a time in the life of the church where things take on a slower pace. Some reasoning for this is because during the summer months our schedules become less predictable as people travel and commitments change. However, this break from our normal routines can also be a time for spiritual renewal.

When we consider what spiritual renewal looks like many of us may think about taking a spiritual retreat. A spiritual retreat is a time when we take a break from our normal routines to pray, be silent, and find God. This summer, as the weather improves, a good practice would be to plan time to be quiet and alone with God in prayer. If you are planning on spending more time outdoors, you might look for a beautiful place to be still in God’s presence among his creation. If you are planning on going on vacation, you might consider using that time to find God. Perhaps you could walk along the beach and pray or get up early to read scripture and listen to God with your heart. There are a variety of ways you might choose to go deeper in your spirituality and grow in faith and holiness.

In scripture there are several places where we are commended to seek God. Many of these verses come from the prophet Isaiah who says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; Call on him while He is near.” (55:6) In other places he says, that people should listen to God “in silence,” and in doing so, “gain new strength” (41). It seems that the practice of seeking God in those times when we can be still and calm has been part of the human experience since we were created.

However you choose to spend your time this summer, remember that God is always longing for a deeper connection with you. If you choose to use your time to connect to God I am certain you will find it to be a time that is refreshing and nurturing for your soul. May God bless you as you, “go from strength to strength” until each of us “appears before God” together. (Ps. 84)

What is Love?

In communicating our faith, many people use love as a way of describing God. So in our most recent class we explored the concept of love and how it has changed over the years. For instance, the writers of the New Testament used at least four Greek words for love.

ἀγάπη (agápe): meaning the love between God and humans, charity, or brotherly love.
ἔρως (érōs): meaning passionate love
φιλία (philia): meaning affectionate friendship
στοργή (storgē): meaning affection as the love between parents and children

By the middle ages this concept had changed once again. In this time period we get words like:

Caritas: meaning the love which people use when they put others before themselves.
Charity. Amor: meaning the love of material things such as money, power, possessions, etc.
Courtly Love: an expression of knightly worship embodied in another person.

Today, in our modern world, we use love to mean all sorts of things. Often times we describe our expression of love to make it more accurate. We say things like, “I love you like a friend” or “I love you like a sister” and so on. Perhaps our language has developed this way because love, like God, is beyond our complete understanding.

So as we continue to reflect on what love means for us, we need to consider what we mean when we describe God as love. What is this perfect source of all love that Christians feel from time to time? What happens if we don’t feel that love?

Whatever the case, it is important for all of us to remember that the love each of us shares with God will likely mature in us as we grow in our faith. There will be times when we feel close to God and times when we feel He is distant from us. In our journey there will be times when all we have is the discipline of our spiritual practice to carry us forward. It is this maturing in our faith, however, that reflects the spiritual journey we are all on. Like the Israelites, it would be easy for us to stay in Egypt where we have access to food and shelter. However, none of us can become who God is calling us to be unless we venture out into the desert. This means leaving the joy of our conversion and proceeding down the road of discernment, calling, and action where we explore new ways of knowing God and living our faith. This isn’t always an easy process, but ultimate reward is beyond all measure.