Hope

Hope

Hope has gotten a lot of press recently, from Pres. Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope to the ridicule of his understanding of hope by his opponents.  Since the time of the Apostle Paul, Hope has been a Christian virtue, a characteristic that promotes our individual and joint well being.  I believe hope is a characteristic that helps us love God with all our heart.  For Christians, I believe, hope springs from knowing that the way things are, are not the way things will always be.  Furthermore we are hopeful because we know we are not alone in our darkest nor our brightest hour.

We are hopeful that the world as it is will not always be as it is because we believe the resurrected Jesus Christ to be the first born of a new creation called the kingdom of God.  We are all able through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to be new creations as well.  This new creation is not run on fear as our current world is; rather it is run on love, not on separation or individualism; rather on community.  In the new creation we are in communion with God, communion with our neighbors, and in communion with nature.  We are hopeful for this new creation because we know the great stories of the past and want to be a part of the great stories of now.

We are hopeful because we are not alone.  This is one of the great messages of the cross.  God incarnate, the divine one in human flesh, was willing to suffer and die.  God is not separate from our suffering.  God has experienced it too.  To put it colloquially, God has been there and done that.  Hope does not deny the suffering of the world. It is not Pollianna with rose colored glasses.  If God incarnate wound up on a cross how we could we expect anything different.   Hope is motivation to keep moving forward despite the pain and suffering common to life.  Hope is knowing that God will be with us no matter what we do or what is done to us.  Hope is a christian virtue.

Questions for today:
How would you define hope?
When do you and what makes you feel hopeful?
(First posted in 2009, revised 5 April 2011)

Sermon for christ the king Sunday

Part 1



Part 2

Prayer

From facebook group Unapologetically Episcopalian

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Evelyn Rolls Over!!!!!

Sahra Harding, August 29, Season after Pentacost Year C

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

The only speech to occur to date on an August 28th that should be remembered.

JasonAndPop

Play Time

Things I've learned as Rector

I have been a rector (head priest of a congregation) for a little over a year now. I am inspired to share a few things I've learned and/or relearned by my friend Liz over at Stick and Snakes. So, in no particular order I have learned in leadership to:

• Pray
  
  
  • My father once told me that the only way to do ministry is to work on your relationship with God. As that relationship blossoms it over flows to the people around you. This is so true that I can't emphasize it enough. When I have been consistent in my prayers, the more on top of administrative tasks I have been, offered better pastoral care, and have made and led the congregation to make better decisions.


• Trust is the currency of leadership
  
  • No one will follow if they don't trust you. Without trust it takes anywhere from twice to six times as long to do anything. On the other hand, if people trust you then you can get a lot done very fast. You'll ultimately see change happen faster if you spend a year building trust, then if you start changing things the moment you walk in the door.
  
  
• Build trust through little things


• Jesus said in a parable somewhere that the one who can be trusted with little things can be trusted with bigger things. He was talking about leadership there. You can build trust with a congregation by taking care of small things like showing up on time, being prepared, and doing what you say you will do. Even if it is something as small as remembering to email someone to set up a meeting time, the more you consistently deliver on the actions you say you are going to take, the more people will trust you.*


• To inspire change or transformation, start with yourself.


• A mentor of mine once said for everything you ask a parish to change, change two things about yourself. I would add not only change yourself, but don't talk about it either. Simply do it and let people notice it on their own. I have lost 35 pounds over the last year and it has increased my leadership credibility; not because I'm thinner, rather because they see I can stick to something and produce results. Plus, if I am able to keep a commitment to myself, then I am more likely to keep the commitments I make to them.


• Preach what you believe.


• This too is from my dad, but again he is right. If for a half a moment you preach by your words or deeds something you don't believe, the congregation will smell it and you will have blown all your credibility. It is better to say you have no clue what a particular scripture means while in the pulpit, or to say you believe something that 90 percent of the congregation will disagree with, then to preach something you do not believe.

*For a further discussion on trust see Stephen M. R. Covey's book Leading at the Speed of Trust.

Sermon and Baptism for Pentecost 3

Luke 7:36-8:3

Pentecost 3, Year C, 13 June 2009 Part 1

Pentecost 3, Year C 13 June 2010, Part II

Baptism

P90X

I decided to do the P90X training program. After watching the infomercial during repeated bouts of insomnia, and losing about 35 pounds through WeightWatchers I decided to give it a shot. I got the DVDs about a month ago, but I have waited to start because of the birth of the twins. I have also gained about 5 pounds back during the last few weeks with the birth and all.

Tonight was day one of the 90 days of P90X. I took my photos and did the Chest and Back work out. It is basically an hour's worth of push-ups and pull-ups. Right now, I am not doing as many reps as the folks on the DVD and I am using a chair for the pull-ups. However, my goal is to be able to do 15 pull-ups unassisted by the end of the 90 days. After the the Chest and Back work out you do the Ab Ripper X workout. I am gassed, especially my core. Tomorrow is plyometrics.

So why am I doing this. Well, for health reasons both diabetes and heart disease run in both sides of my family. It is imperative I watch my health, or I might not be around to see my great-grandaughter become President of the United States some day. Furthermore, and most importantly, I want my kids to be able to trust me. If I can't keep a commitment to myself--a simple commitment to exercises 6 days a week, then how can they trust me to keep the commitments I make to them. Why would they keep commitments they make to me? So, I am testing myself. I want to know how deep my ability to honor my commitments runs. I'll post at least once a week on my progress. We'll find out how much intestinal fortitude I have.

Easter 5, Year C

Easter 5, Year C, 3 May 2010

Acts 11:1-18 | Psalm 148 | Revelation 21:1-6 | John 13:31-35

Easter 3, Year C John 21:1-19

Sermon for Easter 3, Year C

I borrowed the joke at the beginning from fishingjokes.com

Easter 2, Year C

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter, Year C

a song for good friday

A Poem for Maundy Thursday

Pottery
towels
and water

a community gathered
in prayer
in humility
in joy
in pain

Prayers said
in hope for presence
in hope for grace
in hope for exploding mercy

Scriptures read
utterance for the sake of re-membrance
spoken word for the sake of re-collection
re-building, re-forming, re-shaping in the image

In the image of
one who kneels
one who washes feet
one who...
from his knees leads a revolution

So we
gathered in prayer
kneel and wash,
we do as the One did
as the One does

So we can go and do likewise
So we can lead from our knees
So we can love as the One loves

Pottery
towels
and water

meager things
humble acts
by such things are empires toppled
by such acts, the Kingdom of God is built

Let this Mind be in you

Sermon for Palm Sunday Year C, 28 March 2010
Isaiah 50:4-9a | Psalm 31:9-16 | Phillipians 2:5-11 | Luke 23:1-49

Lent V, Year C

The sermon is in two parts so that I could fit it to YouTubes limits.

Great Quote

“The church, in short, has a role to play only here and now; so if it wants a role model for its operations, it should imitate the kingdom’s present, nonjudgmental way of doing business, not its final one. It definitely should not attempt, in this world, to do the kind of sorting out that the kingdom so plainly refuses to do until the next. But alas, beginning right in apostolic time – indeed, beginning even in Scripture itself – excommunication has been one of the church’s favorite indoor sports. Second in popularity only to jumping to conclusions about who should be given the heave-ho first. The practice of tossing out rotten types while the net is still in the water has been almost everybody’s idea of a terrific way to further the kingdom. Everybody’s, that is, except Jesus’ — the one who put the church in the business of being fishers of men to begin with. The net result, to use an apt phrase for such ineptness, has been an operation that looks as if it is being run more by his competitors than by his partners” – Robert Capon, Kingdom, Judgment, Grace (128).

Lent IV, year C

Sermon on the Prodigal Son