28 february: wednesday in the third week of lent

it happened behind the clouds, within the clouds, which the ancient greeks thought to be living creatures, who veil and reveal. the holy one was at work changing the sunset. after a week of evening clouds, the winter sunset had been put away, in storage perhaps in the depths unfathomable to us mortals. the winter sunset that edged obliquely under the horizon, circling the world with the bright darkness of christmas, was only a memory. the new sunset came to the horizon much more sharply, a bright arrow that left a simple brightness all around. the waves of the sunset bathed the bare but budding branches bronze, and those trees in its shadows had outlives fuzzy with coming flowers and foliage.

wednesday in the third week of lent

not everything is frozen this morning, and the sunrise blankets all with at least a promise of heat. but my fingers are among the frozen things. my tongue may be the pen of a ready writer, but my fingers say, "not yet. let us embrace a warm cup of coffee, hold it. don't waste it on the ever-warm tongue."

still, lent means spring. the days are lengthening, and although it is brother crow, one of the black-robed monks, who awakes the dawn, and not myself, there is this morning enough light at 6:30 to read the morning psalms without a candle. This morning's psalms are numbers 120-125, songs of ascent, songs pilgrims sang as they went up to jerusalem, and I wonder what tune carried these words as jesus and his followers made the trip to mount zion for that last passover, the feast at which he himself would be the pascal lamb, sacrificed for his followers who would accompany him in the upper room, and for many, indeed for the sin of the world. at best i suspect a bitter-sweet melody, as they all at least silently agreed with thomas that they were going to jerusalem to die with their good master.

did they, could they, rejoice when he said to them, "let us go to the house of the lord?" perhaps the chill my fingers hold this cold lenten morning filled their whole beings, bowels and knees and tongues. still, they went, went to "jerusalem restored! the city/one united whole!/here the tribes go up,/the tribes of the holy one." they followed this son of david who would like his ancestor dance naked through the streets, not carrying the ark that held arron's blossoming rod into the city, but carrying the tree of life out. his followers then would not seem to be good candidates for living stones, "unshakeable, standing for ever."

yet when the cold darkness of today's lentnen night comes, i will pray the next psalm in this series, one that must have had joyous melodies for jesus' followers as they would begin to understand what he was doing as he recaptured jerusalem:



"when the holy one brought zion's captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream
then our mouths filled with laughter,
and our lips with song.
. . .
those who went sowing in tears,
now sing as they reap.
they went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves."

the third sunday in lent: the samaritan woman at the well

by now you may have noticed a pattern to the eucharistic readings in lent. the tempter is surprised that jesus, fresh from his baptismal anointing, does not express his messiahship as one might legitimately expect if the salvation of the world were a reality television show. instead jesus choose the messiahship of isaiah's suffering servant, who a bruised reed shall not break, nor smoking flax quench.

(the motifs of the temptation will reappear in the ministry of christ jesus and his church. he will ask, what father whose child asks for bread would give a stone. james, the brother of jesus, would be flung from the parapet of the temple, resulting in the conversion of many and the pleasure at his death for many more. some would interpret the conversion of constantine as all the nations of at least the imperial world coming under the rule of christ. others would see it as the church yielding to temptation at an opportune time.)

the second sunday it is nicodemus, a ruler of israel, who is suprised by the works and words of the messiah.

and now it is the third sunday, and jesus comes, not at night as had nicodemus, but at noon, to the well jacob had given to his egyptian grandsons, and speaks to a samaritan woman, who is also quite surprised.

lent is not primarily about our works of penitence, although we often speak proudly as if it were. rather it is primarily a time to prepare for the surpassing surprise of the passover of the lord.

if we are honest, the surprise is always greater than we expect. by the grace of god it may be possible to let more of the old man die each year, that more of the new man may rise to new life. but some times we resist the grace, living not the good news, but the alfred hitchcock movie psycho, keeping the old woman alive in the attic so we can put on her clothes to act out the phantasies of death.

in my lent this year i struggle with the big koan of ezekiel, of whose prophetic work is written,

"son of man, the members of your nation are talking about you on the ramparts and in the doorways. they keep saying, 'come and hear the word that has come from YHWH.' . . . and my people sit down in front of you and listen to your words, but they do not act on them. they cannot tell the truth and their hearts are set on dishonest gain. as far as they are concerned, you are like a love song beautifully sung to music. they listen to your words, but no one puts them into practice. when the thing takes place--and it is beginning now--they will learn that there has been a prophet among them." (33:30-33 JB)

These words seem so accurately to describe the church.. this morning we sang "my song is love unknown", and i thought, how sadly true.

the samaritan woman at the well heard the words and put them into practice. then she disappears from our view, except in the legends of the church, a grain of wheat that has fallen on the ground and died, one who loved life and so lost it.

never have i heard the necessary paradox of losing one's life to find it (the gospel according to matthew 10:34) expressed better than by rebecca solnit in a field guide to getting lost:

"lost really has two disparate meanings. losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. there are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, a key. you still know where you are. everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. either way, there is a loss of control. imagine yourself streaming through time shedding gloves, umbrellas, wrenches, books, friends, homes, names. this is what the view looks life if you take a rear-facing seat on the train. looking forward you constantly acquire moments of arrival, moments of realization, moments of discovery. the wind blows your hair back and you are greeted by what you have never seen before. the material falls away in onrushing experience. it peels off like skin from a molting snake. of course to forget the past is to lose the sense of loss that is also memory of an absent richness and a set of clutes to navigate the present by; the art is not one of forgetting but letting go. and when everything else is gone, you can be rich in loss." (pp. 22-23)

of course. this is what the apostle paul wrote to the church at phillipi: "for him i have accepted the loss of everything, and i look on everything as so much rubbish, if only i can have christ and be given a place in him." (3:8-9 JB)

difficulties with a modest proposal, 2: creeds

a good friend asked me yesterday if sometime i could explain to her my faith and my hope, thinking it would take some time and be very personal. i was probably somewhat disappointing. i said i am boringly orthodox, that my faith is expressed, as well as i think inadequate words can express such things, in the nicene creed (although i would lose the "and from the son" in the clause about the holy spirit, following the original wording), and that my hope is best expressed in a collect from the gelesian sacramentary, an eighth century collection of prayers, used in the easter vigil:

"o god of unchangeable power and eternal light: look
favorably on your whole church, that wonderful and sacred
mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry
out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being
raised up, and things which had grown old are being made
new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your son jesus
christ our lord. amen." (bcp 1979, p. 285)

the american episcopal church's bishops, meeting in chicago in 1886, agreed with my accepting "the nicene creed as the sufficient statement of the christian faith." (bcp 1979, p. 877). the bishops of the church of england, meeting at lambeth two years later, modified that position slightly, including "the apostles' creed, as the baptismal symbol; and the nicene creed, as the sufficient
statement of the christian faith." (loc. cit.)

as simple as that change is, it opens up a fairly large door in our understanding of church unity. the "baptismal symbol," as lambeth called the apostles' creed, is very ancient, being used apparently as a dialogue between the one performing the baptism and the one being baptised, at least as early as the second century (see my earlier blog post, circle of prayer 24a). as the link to that creed suggests, it is widely accepted by the "reformed church," although it was apparently not used in worship except at baptism until around the twelth century.

nor was the nicene widely used in the west before 1014, although it was used from the fifth century in constantinople and from the late sixth century in spain. it has, however, come to be a central part of the eucharistic worship of much of the church.

the problem is not that the two creeds disagree in any way, but that the one says so much more than the latter. one is a symbol of baptismal unity, a source of christian unity accepted by nearly all of the church, which, with the exception of some orthodox and some congregational bodies, do not "rebaptize" those who come to them from other parts of the church. the other, which might be a source of eucharistic unity, tends to be accepted only with the insistance that one coming to the table agrees with the interpretation, often very precisely, of the communion whose table it is.

we may say in the nicene creed that "we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins," but we do not quite consider baptism as making us fully members of "the one holy catholic and apostolic church."

st. peter's chair at antioch

this is perhaps the most beautiful morning of the winter yet in eureka springs! the sky is an even grey, the temperature is a dry 30 degrees, and everything is just-coated with the shiniest rime of ice.

as i have probably mentioned before on this blog, when i came to shore after spending my first summer on the waters of the whulji (which most folks call puget sound), i didn't want to live in a house again. it gave me a whole new understanding of francis's statement to the brothers that "we don't live in houses." what i find fascinating is that, not living in a house, not only do i wake to the sound of woodpeckers and the wind in the pines, but i read the words of genesis differently, too. these dudes were on a hiking trip. they had sheep because they didn't have dehydrators. jesus never had a cathedral, even though today the church celebrates st. peter's chair at antioch.

so, yes to anthony of the desert, who had no scrolls in his windowsill and who said to those who asked him about his lack, that to the one who had eyes to see, all creation sang of the glory of the holy one.

and make st. peter's chair a lawn chair at most.

difficulties with a modest proposal, 1: scripture

so, i have of course noticed that all the denominations have not collapsed into one self-recognized holy catholic and apostolic church in the 120 years since 1888. i can't help but think that one of the reasons for that is that most of the official work and discussion has been between folks in fancy clothes--top down. many of the laity don't seem to see so much difference between the different theological positions as they should.

while acknowledging that the episcopal church is currect to insist that there are "principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of christian faith and order committed by christ and his apostles to the church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men." (bcp 1979, p. 877), it seems that what separates us are often not those things.

yet even on those things about which we seem to be in agreement, there are often unnoticed differences (and sometimes highly emotional ones). take the episcopal statement about scripture: "the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments . . .[are] the revealed word of god." the lambeth conference changed that statement to "the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments . . . "[contain] all things
necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith."

the lambeth conference statement is closer to the orthodox (and, mostly, catholic understanding) that the term "word of god" refers primarily to second person of the holy trinity, as he is spoken of in the preamble to the gospel according to john. the word of god did not become incarnate as a book, but as the son of mary.

why, you might ask, do i perhaps seem to undermine my modest proposal that such a statement might be grounds for a grass-roots understanding that the church is one because of the action of christ jesus? it is because of all the misunderstandings that are possible when people get into the "but i thought you said" frame of mind, which can easily happen when we hear what we want to hear.

for my own part, i am quite happy with the understanding of scripture from the lambeth conference. but i also notice that folks within the same communions, whether they be orthodox or baptist, or the same local congregations, whether they be methodist or episcopal, agree with that statement and disagree on what scriptures mean and still we come together at the lord's table. it is the objective authority of scripture which i find primary, not my or your subjective understanding or misunderstanding.

second sunday in lent: being born again: the hard labor

you are familiar, or think you are, with the day's gospel: the third chapter of the holy gospel of our lord jesus christ according to john, verses 1-17. it's a juicy text, a veritable shish-kebab of favourite verses, some of which we sometimes eat raw, sometimes over-cooked: "ye must be born again;" "the wind bloweth where it listeth;" "god so loved the world." just reading the passage, i found a new morsel on which to chew, but first, i want to tell you of my surprise.

yesterday, i heard not one but two good sermons on being born again. the first, explicitly on the text, was preached by the rev. edie bird at st.james episcopal church. the second, which broadly illustrated the text, was entertained by the slightly irreveral jody stephenson at the unitarian universalist fellowship.

to be fair to edie, i should say she was not unentertaining. first she asked us to sing along, if we knew the words--she had no power-point support--to "i'd rather have a paper doll that i could call my own that have a fickle-hearted real life girl," suggesting that we often prefer illusions to reality, if we think it's our wn illusion, and adding that in these modern times when we are bombarded with illusions, they are often not even our own. she did not mention my space, but i will.

then she asked us to sing along to a second song, if we knew the words--"amazing grace"--and preceeded to tell a bit of the stories of john newton and william wilberforce. i had always loved the legend of newton's turning around in mid-atlantic to return his load of slaves to their homeland, writing "amazing grace" along the way, but edie had done her homework and read newton's journals. he does describe his rebirth as beginning in mid-atlantic, reading thomas a kempis' the imitation of christ in a storm, but taking years, gradually leaving the slave trade, becoming an anglican priest, writing "amazing grace" and other hymns, and closing his journal at age 84 with the reflection, "i no longer rememeber much, but this i know: i am a great sinner; christ is a great saviour." he had been reborn with long and hard labor.

william wilberforce's rebirth had been swifter, but the fruits of his labor were not fast maturing. he was elected to the house of commons at twenty-one, and introduced a bill to end slavery in the british empire. he held his seat until his death fifty-four years later, continuing to seek a bill to end slavery, which was only passed a month after his death. his book, a practical view of the prevailing system of professed christians was influential on the religious and political thinking of his day in both england and europe.

wilberforce had been on "the brink of holy orders" when john newton convinced him he could better serve christ as a politician.

i'm not sure but jody stephenson thinks of painting as a kind of holy orders, but her book faltering towards perfection which she outlined yesterday is certainly proof that it can be outstanding service to christ: not easy service, but a long, hard labor.

if jody were ever a slave trader, she has yet to reveal that pst occupation. but she is wonderfully honest in revealing her own slavery to the sin of self-condemnation, and vigorous in telling how god in christ has saved her from it.

self-condemnation is a very seductive sin, one that can seem righteous, although it is only the subtly bright underbelly of self-approval. if we approve ourselves, we may be thought proud. if we condemn ourselves, we may be though humble. both acts are merely part of original sin, replacing the holy one with ourselves as "maker of all things, judge of all men."

so jody told her story, faltering, stumbling, but all along led by the one who speaks to her as often in movies as in sunsets or holy write, saying that she is his perfect work, not because of what she does but because of whose she is, and hearing, she is freed to do the work that he has prepared for her to falter in.

oh: my new-found morsel is verse 8: "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit." i have friends who--sometimes, on confusing days--have told me that i am either spirit-filled or that i walk in the spirit. yeah. sure. i hardly remember where i've been, and i seldom have a clue where i'm going. but the signs are hopeful. slowly, as in a long hard labor, is being born in me the faith that these are not the things i need to know.

i need to know only christ, and him crucified, who if he be lifted up will draw all the world unto himself.

further thoughts of modest proposal

ryan and ryan have really helped me to clarify my muddled thoughts some, as has reading on being a bishop.

one of the great steps forward (backwards) the episcopal church in the united states has taken in its last prayer book revision was a return to the earliest known sources describing episcopal ministry, rather than to repeat the argumentative sort of words from the heat of the reformation. although there have been some words spoken within the anglican communion lately which are hard to describe as entirely charitable, at least no one has been burned at stake lately that i know of.

what i am suggesting is simply to take that direction further. ryan knight suggested what i am saying seems like part of the independent catholic/apostolic movement, and it is; but again, taking it further. i mean, think of it: "independent" catholic church--an oxymoron. of course what is meant is independent of papalism and empire. the episcopal church, although it recognizes that a big change in the role of the bishop, from the local expression of the one holy catholic and apostolic church, to an administrative supervisor of a diocese, took place in ryan blackwell's bad-tasting fourth century, still clings to dioscenal bishops, with the difficult-theologically addition of suffragans and assistants. so, why not go behind constantine to ignatius and hippolytus and iranaeus and cyprian, indeed to paul and timothy and jesus and the disciples gathered in the upper room after the resurrection. (you might look, ryan b., at 1 timothy 3"1-7. titus 1:7-0, acts 20, i peter 5, or even to the gospel according to john, 20:19-23) for ordination in the new testament.)

you see, ryan knight, i am in no way condemning ordination within the episcopal church u.s.a. as i have suggested privately to you and to many others, i find it as clear an expression of the orthodox church as we have in english. i am simply noticing that its origins remain entangled with the arguments of the reformation which seem to me to be severe limitations to the work of evangelism, of reconciliation, today.

a modest proposal

ember days are always dangerous, especially today when the first reading for this morning is the second chapter of ezekiel.

so, here's my proposal, even though it might require me to leave my little hermitage amongst the loblolly pines:

rather than encourage ordination in the various "brands" of churches, a term i know every sort of division of the church hates for itself but is happy to call her sisters, why not begin ordination in the one church, holy, apostolic, catholic? the standards might be those proposed by the chicago-lambeth quadrilateral:


1. the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments as the revealed word of god.

2. the nicene creed as the sufficient statement of the christian faith.

3. the two sacraments--baptism and the supper of the lord--ministered with
unfailing use of christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained by him.

4. the historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of god into the unity of his church.

but, although this would be the basis of ordination into the one church, i am suggesting that we would recognize that "no one can call jesus lord without the holy spirit," (i corinthians 12:3), so we would not "excommunicate" any part of the church. rather we would seek that all the church would recognize her unity because she is the bride of christ, his body, built on the one foundation of her lord.

education for ordination would be in any seminary of the whole church, one's course of study being determined by one's bishop or the person or group of person who exercised the equivalalent of episcopal ordination within one's local congregation, but ordination would be within apostolic tradition.

i am sure there are many possible objections to this modest proposal, but i think it is at least a recognition of the largely post-denominational, post-reformation nature of today's church. it would look back to the early, councilar church for that heritage of understanding and teaching that belongs to the whole church, and it would look to proclaim ministry of reconciliation for which we pray in today's collect from the anglican book of common prayer:

"O ALMIGHTY God, who hast committed to the hands of men the ministry of reconciliation; We humbly beseech thee, by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, to put it into the hearts of many to offer themselves for this ministry; that thereby mankind may be drawn to thy blessed kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

fools for christ

paul's first letter to the corinthians continues to help me with my ezekiel koan. this morning the third chapter continues (vv.18-21a):

"Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,
‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’,
and again,
‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are futile.’
So let no one boast about human leaders."

of course ezekiel probably seemed a fool not only often but always, lying on one side and the the other, contemplating a time decorated not with fleur-de-lis or lion's head, but with toy soldiers attacking a toy jerusalem, eating unclean food.
(ezekiel 4)

some of the other and more recent notable fools for christ include basil of moscow and john of san francisco.

i was intrigued and pleased to hear rowan of canterbury called a fool for christ. not only was i happy that someone recognizes that there is a need for this sort of profoundly prophetic ministry, but i was a bit surprised that alex kirby, the bbc writer who made this comparison of rowan williams, knew about fools for christ. would that some of the american news writers were so well-informed.

i had a dream

one of the readings from this morning's daily office (i'm using the 1943 lectionary of the episcopal church in the u.s.a.) included 1 corinthians 3:1-4:

"And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human?"

after reading it, i thought about what it is like to come into eureka springs. there are signs advertising the first church of paul, the first church of appolos, the first church of wesley, the first church of luther, the first church of calvin, even the seventh day adventist church--i don't know what happened to the first six.

it was a very cold morning, and after morning prayer i took a nap, and i dreamed. i dreamed all the congregations had signs that said first or second or third or whatever church in eureka springs, a congregation of the one church, holy, apostolic, catholic.

i read a little book recently by a priest in the church of england called and you visited me, in which he attributes the lack of power of the contemporary church to its many divisions. i think fr. martin is exactly right. sadly i hear, nearly every day, of more divisions, rather than more recognition of the true nature of christ's body, described in the rest of today's epistle reading:

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
. . .
"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple."

sometimes i wonder if my brothers and sisters who are looking for the rapture are partly right: right in there being a rapture, but wrong to look forward to it. i wonder sometimes if it has already happened. i remember jesus' enigmatic question, "when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" luke 18:8b), and i wonder if he will find not faith, but jealousy and quarreling.

regarding prophecy and doom and gloom

there is no room in real prophecy for doom or gloom.

rather the prophet says things about our dooming situation such, "oh, my dear one, look, there is this big log of greed across your chest; let's take it off so you can breathe. and look, a big wall of sloth has fallen across your legs; let's clear it off so you can walk again. now, we can wash these cuts and put salve on these bruises and you can begin to heal."

and to those who live in gloom, in the darkness, real prophecy shows the light that shines in the wilderness, that enlightens all. (indeed the gospel of john becomes a work of prophecy seen in this way.)

the book of ezekiel begins with a magnificent vision of the glory of god, and ends with a vision of the rebuilding of the temple, the temple in which we are called to be living stones.

this is a wonderfully joyous koan.

prophets among us

there are prophets among us, but it seems often they are not in the church, at least not explicitly. among them i would certainly include david james duncan and cormac mccarthy.

of mccarthy's work, suttree is an unusually insightful book which, among other things, seems to me to be what the book of jeremiah might look like set in knoxville, tennessee. for fans of the revelation to st. john, no country for old men contains fairly explicit suggestions to that work. it is an extended chase story peopled by good folks who try to serve god and mammon and one bad dude who makes no such pretense.

duncan's work is all theological, but god laughs and plays is out and out sermonic.

clues to the koan

(by the way, if there are towels to wash your faces as you leave the church house, the video clip below is not a bad way to observe ash wednesday, despite what i said about lent in general).

so, my first clue came last night during vespers:

Psalm 142. Voce mea ad Dominum.

I CRIED unto the LORD with my voice; * yea, even unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
2 I poured out my complaints before him, * and showed him of my trouble.
3 When my spirit was in heaviness, thou knewest my path; * in the way wherein I walked, have they privily laid a snare for me.
4 I looked also upon my right hand, * and saw there was no man that would know me.
5 I had no place to flee unto, * and no man cared for my soul.
6 I cried unto thee, O LORD, and said, * Thou art my hope, and my portion in the land of the living.
7 Consider my complaint; * for I am brought very low.
8 O deliver me from my persecutors; * for they are too strong for me.
9 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks unto thy Name; * which thing if thou wilt grant me, then shall the righteous resort unto my company.

Salisbury Cathedral Miserere Mei Deus

lent. again. already

i'm still excited from the nativity, and here it is lent, time to get ready for easter, as if one could be ready for such an astounding event.

the past several years my "lenten disciplines" have taken a different turn. partly this turn has been a gift, and partly it has been the result of a conscious dissatisfaction with lent as usual.

i mean, consider ash wednesday. we read the gospel. jesus tells us that we when we fast we are not to disfigure our faces, but to wash our face, that we appear not to fast. but we ash our faces. the for forty-six days we gosspin about what we have "given up for lent." giving up chocolate is popular with many of my friends. i always feel this reduces the resurrection to "o joy!, now i can ear chocolate easter bunnies."

the traditional prayer, fasting, and alms are very good disciplines, of course, but are best done secretly. the lenten discipline which came to me as a gift, however, does not seem to require secredy. in fact discussing it may be a helpful part of it. it is to take a lenten koan, to borrow a term from by zen buddhist buddies. a koan is a text to unriddle. my first lenten koan, from a. d. 2006, was the passage from the gospel according to john in which some greeks come to philip and say, "we would see jesus." philip tells andrew. andrew and philip tell jesus. jesus answers them, "the hour is come, that the son of man should be glorified. verily, verily, i say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground, it abideth alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." on one level, a text as simple as possible. but, there are levels and levels.

this year my koan seems to be a bigger one: the book of the prophet ezekiel. this strange text has been haunting me since last june. there is a central part, the most in-your-face-perssonal part, in the second chapter:

"son of man, i send thee to the children of israel, to a rebellious nation . . . . i do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, thus sayeth the lord god. and they, whether they will hear, or whether they will fore bear . . . yet shall know there has been a prophet among them." (2:3-5)

i suspect this is ot only my koan, but the koan for all the church, as we look once again toward the biggest celebration of the resurrection of jesus christ of the whole year. do we, dare we, do i, dare i, share the words that are sweet as honey in our mouths, "alleluia! christ is risen! the lord is risen indeed! alleluia!" dare we go through the three days of death, the desolation of israel, that leads to the resurrection and the rebuilding of the temple that is ezekiel's vision and jesus' promise or do we just give up chocolate for forty-six days?

candlemass: feast of the presentation: feast of the meeting of our lord jesus christ

in matins of the orthodox church are sung each morning nine odes, one of which is from the 26th chapter of isaiah. the ode sung only begins with the 10th verse. but i think on this morning the beginning of the chapter is appropriate to describe the expectation of simeon, who was waiting in the temple for the coming of the messiah of israel:

in that day shall this song be sung in the land of judah; we have a strong city; salvation will god appoint for walls and bulwarks.
open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
for he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
the foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
the way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
yea, in the way of thy judgments, o lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
with my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

it is in that context that simeon's canticle, the nunc dimmitis especially makes sense:

lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word;
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
to be a light to lighten the gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people israel.

the temple in which simeon waited is no more. its replacement is made not with the hard stones cut by herod, but with the living stones which are our hearts. do we wait there for the coming of the messiah of israel? the words of the prophet isaiah can only encourage us today as they must have done simeon.

winter transfiguration

thursday morning daily office reading for the thursday in sextugesima week:

"and after six days jesus taketh with him peter, and james, and john, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.
"and his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them." (mark 9:2-3)

i looked out the window and the whole world was white as snow. ah, how boldly isaiah writes of the holy one:

"holy, holy, holy, is the lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." (isaiah 6:3)

and i am reminded the the new creation is about the whole universe. so i was delighted to sing the second section of the benedicte omnia opera:

"II The Cosmic Order

O ye heavens, bless ye the Lord; *
O ye waters that be above the firmament, bless ye the Lord;
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; *
praise him and magnify him for ever.

O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord; *
O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord;
O ye showers and dew, bless ye the Lord; *
praise him and magnify him for ever.

O ye winds of God, bless ye the Lord; *
O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord;
O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord; *
praise him and magnify him for ever.

O ye dews and frosts, bless ye the Lord; *
O ye frost and cold, bless ye the Lord;
O ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord; *
praise him and magnify him for ever.

O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord; *
O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord;
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord; *
praise him and magnify him for ever."

what a wonderful gift is the snow!