fleeting christmas

already it's the eleventh day. a friend mentioned that she only just now noticed how many of the "christmas decorations" around here are snowmen or some such, which have nothing to do with what we say we're celebrating, that her old and nearly worn-out peace banner is more what we should use to greet the coming of the prince of peace. and this morning i read the 65th chapter of isaiah, that wonderful passage

For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
18But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
19I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
20No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
21They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23They shall not labour in vain,
or bear children for calamity;*
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
and their descendants as well.
24Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord.

i read this and think about the fighting among the priestly clean-up crew in bethlehem at the church of the nativity and wonder if we should all becomes muslims.

saints of winter

i have often fantasized about living in one of the little stone beehive huts off the coast of scotland, or in a daub and wattle hermitage in ireland. i appreciate my little scrapwood and plastic hut in the ozarks, right on the edge of the 100 aker wood, but it isn't likely to yield any interesting archaeological residues after even five years, much less a thousand.

yet, it is cold enough here, and not only a little wet, so that when i think of what life must have really been like for the irish saints who recited the psalter whilst standing up to their necks in a cold stream, i am both happy and grateful to be where i am, chanting the psalms in coziness, with few chinks for the wind to find.

but of course as soon as i had typed "chinks for the wind to find" i heard what an ambiguous phrase that is. reading the first letter of john in the daily office this crystalclear morning, i was struck by this sentence: "and hereby we know that he abides in us, by the spirit which he has given us." (3:24b) and i think how often this first gift, this ultimate gift, this gift which marks those who are in christ's new creation remains unopened, for this is also the gift which requires us to "love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action." so often we seem to find it easier to reject the gift.

therefore i find great comfort in the wonderful lists of winter saints, beginning with thomas on the solstice, including stephen the protomartyr and the holy innocents, and going on to encompass basil and seraphim of savlov and gregory of nyssa and paul of thebes and anthony of alexandra and mark of ephesus and maximus the confessor and xenia of petersburg and john chrysostom and isaac of syria, all of whom lived lives which embodied love not [only] in word or speech,"--certainly the words of john chrysostom and isaac of syria and gregory of nyssa are as powerful encouragements for love as we can find--but also "in truth and action," even in action which this world finds bizarre or incomprehensible, as it does xenia of petersburg and paul of thebes.

and yet. yet this morning the sun rose brilliantly, a minute or so earlier than yesterday, and it shone in the darkness, even though the darkness could not comprehend it.

circle of prayer: epigrah

a wheel was shown to me,
wonderful to behold . . .
divinity is in its omniscience
and omnipotence
like a wheel,
a circle,
a whole,
that can neither be understood,
nor divided,
nor begun nor ended. --hildegard of bingen

st. thomas day/winter solstice/o dayspring

st. thomas' feast comes on the winter solstice, the 21st of december, a date i always find quite appropriate. thomas is usually called "doubting thomas," but if matthew's gospel is to be credited, there were others doubters (matt. 28:17), so i think it is more helpful to look at the witness of thomas as proof that the resurrected jesus is the same as the crucified jesus, that this is an event in the body and not only in the spirit.

in the same way, remembering thomas at the darkest time of the year, just on the edge of the commemoration of the incarnation of our lord, also witnesses to the physicality of our salvation, that it is brought about as much by the incarnation as by the resurrection, that indeed these are parts of the same event which continues through the assumption to this very day.

i am delighted to find that western white man protestantism is beginning to pay more attention to the worldliness of salvation. brian mclaren's latest book, everything must change seems an important move in that direction. i hope it is not just condemned. in it mclaren pointed me to an old jackson browne song that unfortunately we who call ourselves the church would do well to remember, not just at this season.

december 17-24: the great o's

the magnificat* is the song of the church at sunset, as the new day begins. for each day there are antiphons to give it particular meanings for changes ofthe cycle of the year. few of us know these antiphons unless we live in a monastic community, but most of us know the antiphons for the last week of advent, because they are the verses of the popular hymn "o come, o come, emmanuel

each verse is a title of the messiah from one of the prophets, especially isaiah. the hymn has been recorded and sung many times, but one of the most surprisingly moving renditions i have found is by a primarily rhythm and blues group, boyziimen. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do.

*The Song of Mary Magnificat
Luke 1:46-55a


My soul doth magnify the Lord, *
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded *
the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth *
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me, *
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him *
throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; *
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, *
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, *
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

circle of prayer postlude: getting started, or don't try this at home

one never knows where the path will lead.

it is 6:00 in the morning on the third sunday of advent, still dark and eighteen degrees. i light a candle, pull a blanket around my shoulders, and begin morning prayer. "o lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise." because it is advent, i start with venite (psalm 95:1-7, 96:9,13), which ends with
"for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth,
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth."

next, because it is the sixteenth morning of the month, follow psalms 79, 80, 81, beginning
"o god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple
have they defiled, and made jerusalem a heap of stones."

psalm 81 concludes
"i would have fed them also with the finest wheat-flour;
and with honey out of the stony rock would i have satisfied them."

then comes a reading from isaiah, promising the desert will bloom (ch. 35), and because it is sunday, the te deum. the new testament reading describes the birth of john the baptist (luke 1:57ff), and by the time his father zecheriah is singing that
"the dayspring from high has visited us,
to give light to them that sit in the darkness, and in the shadow of death . . ."
a cold winter sunrise is reddening the south-east horizon, showing through my frosty plastic window a hundred-acre wood dusted with snow.

i sing christina rossetti's "in the bleak mid-winter" softly.

i am very cold, and most people would think me very alone, and i am very happy.

how did i get here? did the circling path that led to this cold hermit's morning begin the early fall morning my kayak took me around a bend of the st. francis river to find a huge bald cypress becoming dozens of great blue herons in the sunrise? yes.

did it begin the morning in the season of epiphany when i walked cautiously through the red doors of all saints' episcopal church to enter the daily office? yes.

or did it begin when i moved to santa fe to watch sunsets? yes.

by the grace of god when there has been a fork in the road, at least for the past thirty years, i have taken it. gradually the curves had led me back to the place where i had begun, to find it for the first time.

i began to notice what was happening, that i was becoming an accidental hermit, during a three-year long exploration of the waters of north-west washington and south british columbia in a red folding kayak named brendan. i cautiously cast off from a dock in anacortes one may morning, weighted down with all the gear the fear-and-gear mongers want to sell paddlers, and with the expectation of seeing a lot of beautiful "nature." three septembers later, i pulled up on an afternoon beach in bellingham, wearing only shorts, carrying a single cooking pot and a century-old copy of the holy bible, authorized version.

i knew i did not want to move back into a house, or to return to a career. as francis of assissi said, we do not live in houses. and as i've been told tom robbins said, " a career is a totally inadequate response to life. asked what i had learned, i was surprised to find the answer was easy. what i had expected to be many parts of nature had proved to be one whole creation.

a neighbor in the ozarks is shocked and a bit worried that i live without what she calls creature comforts, but i find that what i have found are the comforts of the creature, that, as annie dillard wrote, we are all created.

if you decide to take the path, do not expect it to lead to my little hut in the ozarks. do not be afraid that you will end up cold and alone on a snow morning. but do pay attention. what the holy one has in store for you is more than we can hope for or imagine.

pay attention. stay awake. put an axe in your television and watch the sunsets and the sunrises instead of listening to morning edition. sing with mary in the evening and zechariah in the morning instead of listening to mp3's. read the daily office instead of the new york times.

i'm alive serious here. there is a great pearl in that field, but if you are not willing to sell everything that you hve to buy it, you will die with the stuff for a good yard sale, but you will miss living in the kingdom of heaven.

commemoration of brother louis (thomas merton)

blessed are the peacemakers. and likely to have a difficult time in 1968, when opponents to the war (there's only one, which the empire now admits it wants to make endless) tended to die in rather mysterious circumstances.

i was in college in 1968, only tangentally connected to the church, which seemed to me to have failed to live by the standards it had taught me. occasionally i participated in worship and activities of centenary united methodist church in memphis, which was active in the civil rights movement. my knowledge of things catholic was quite limited, but ramparts magazine published very insightful essays by this monk called thomas merton.

i have always assumed that the cia was involved if not directly responsible for merton's death. i was one of the students picked by the cia to attend national student association activities to see how radical we might become, and to keep under surveilance.

merton's effective opposition to the war began to open to me the understanding that contemplation is action. the most effective action. i still have great respect for the work of centenary united methodist church, and especially of the rev. j. m. lawson, the then-young pastor. if i had not had the experiences i had at centenary, i might have abandoned the church entirely.

but, i can't help but believe that much of our "action" today lacks the foundation of prayer that is necessary for the real work of the kingdom, the kingdom headed by the one we so lightly call at this season of encouraged greed, the prince of peace.

advent and st. nicholas

i could not resist sharing this post.

circle of prayer 30. reconciliation: lent (spring)

"give them grace, when they hurt each other, to recognize and acknowledge their faults, and to seek each other's forgiveness and yours." (prayer from "the celebration and blessing of a marriage," bcp 1979)

i was reared in a baptist church in a small southern town where we were convinced that roman catholics were followers of the whore of babyon. one of the proofs was that all catholics had to do to have their sins forgiven was to confess to their priest. little did we recognize how difficult true confession is. the closest we came was "revivals," at which just about the only sin confessed was drinking, although there were occasional mentions of "that jezebel."

the difficulty of making a good confession has a long history. in the baptismal covenant we are asked "will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the lord?" adam and eve should have had the advantage of such a question. when they fell into sin, the holy one, who if omniscient knew they had eaten the forbidden fruit, came to walk with them in the cool of the day as usual. rather than repenting and returning, they dissembled and blamed whomever was convenient except themselves. (genesis 3:8-13)

although we tend to agree with crosley, stills and nash that "we've got to get back to the garden," most of us have no clue how to do so. we remain in the ignorance from my childhood, maybe convinced that creation was originally good, maybe even believing that in baptism our sins are forgiven and our innocence restored; but we look around at a world that seems deeply mired in hopelessness.

hence the strength of the little bombshell embedded in the marriage liturgy and quoted above, a prayer for grace to recognize our faults and to seek forgiveness, knowing we will hurt each other. it is too simple for us to accept. we are like naaman, who came to elishah to be cured of leprosy and expected some elaborate ritual. he was told to wash seven times in the jordan. his response was like my childhood distrust of the roman catholics. how could healing, how could salvation, be simple? (2 kings 5:1-12) how could spring, with its thousands of blossoms, follow the dead of winter?

lent means spring. (because the days lengthen then).although the lenten practice of repentance began as a method to restore "notorious evil livers" to the communion of the church, it has become popular for anyone as a time of annual repentance, often leading to a renewal of baptismal vows. this reflects the understanding of the early church, and the continuous understanding of the eastern church, that repentance serves as a second baptism.

in many ways the traditional service of reconciliation is a recapitulation of our whole lives and of the sacraments of the church:

"The Penitent says:
Holy God, heavenly Father, you formed me from the dust in
your image and likeness, and redeemed me from sin and
death by the cross of your Son Jesus Christ. Through the
water of baptism you clothed me with the shining garment of
his righteousness, and established me among your children in
your kingdom. But I have squandered the inheritance of your
saints, and have wandered far in a land that is waste.
". . . I confess to you [the priest] and to the Church. . .
. . .
"Therefore, O Lord, from these and all other sins I cannot
now remember, I turn to you in sorrow and repentance.
Receive me again into the arms of your mercy, and restore me
to the blessed company of your faithful people; through him
in whom you have redeemed the world, your Son our Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen.
. . .
"The Priest concludes:
"Now there is rejoicing in heaven; for you were lost, and
are found; you were dead, and are now alive in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Go (or abide) in peace. The Lord has put away all
your sins.

"Penitent: Thanks be to God."

circle of prayer 29. healing: christmas

"mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth.
risen with healing in his wings,
life and light to all he brings,
hail, the sun of righteousness!
hail, the heaven-born prince of peace!" (charles wesley)

nothing said above about advent should be understood as acceptance of death as "normal."

"christianity is not reconciliation with death. it is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of life. christ is this life. and only if christ is life is death what christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed and not a 'mystery' to be explained. religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a 'status,' a rationale, make it 'normal.' only christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible."
(alexander schmemann)

in christ is fulfilled the prophecy that death will be swallowed up in victory. (isaiah 25:8; romans 15:54). often we think of that victory's being won only at calvary, by the crucifixion. but all of human life is transformed by the incarnation. everything that god the son assumes in his humanity is healed, which is the usual meaning of the greek word often translated "saved." eternal life is possible for human beings because the eternally begotten son of the father entered time as the son of mary.

"o that birth for ever blesssed,
when the virgin, full of grace,
by the holy ghost conceiving,
bare the saviour of our race;
and the babe, the world's redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face . . . ." (a.c. prudentius)

"what child is this . . .?
this, this is christ the king,
. . .
the babe, the son of mary." (w.c. dix)

"for he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death." (1 corinthians 15:24-25)

circle of prayer 31. eucharist: at all times and in all places

"thanks be to god!"

"It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should
at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, Creator of the light and source of life, who hast made us in thine image, and called us to new life in Jesus Christ our
Lord." (eucharistic preface, rite 1, book of common prayer 1979)

we sometimes forget that eucharist, thanksgiving, indeed the great thanksgiving, is, next to the breaking of the bread, the oldest and even more the most appropriate name for the central act of christian worship. we call it the breaking of the bread, the lord's supper, because of the very special meaning which our lord gave to the jewish communal meal, the chaburah. again and again, he gave thanks. so, we too give thanks.

the first thing for which we give thanks is creation. this we have often forgotten in the past few hundred years, as we have vainly assumed that we are now in charge of creation, which we have abstracted as "nature." but the early church always started with giving thanks for creation. indeed if there had been no "night in which our lord jesus christ was handed over to suffering and death;" if he had only formed us in his image; if he had only made covenant with us; if he had only through the prophets taught us to hope for salvation;, if he had only sent us the only-begotten son to be incarnate of the holy spirit, born of the virgin mary; if he had only lived as one of us, yet without sin; if he had only proclaimed to the poor the good news of salvation, to the prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful, joy; still it would be our bounden duty to glorify the one god, living and true, dwelling in light inaccessible before all time and forever.

our eucharistic gatherings, the great act in which we recognize our true role in creation as priest, offering back to the holy one what has been given to us that we and the whole world might be holy, would hardly be changed. this idea is expressed in the jewish passover song dayenu, which lists the great works of the holy one in delivering his people, and says about each, that if that were all he had done, that would have been enough.

but there is more. that god's purpose might be fulfilled, jesus gave himself up to death: and rising from the grave he destroyed death and made the whole creation new.

and that we might no longer live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again, he sent the holy spirit, his own first gift to those who believed, to complete his work in the world, bringing to fulfillment the sanctification of all.

as paul wrote so eloquently in his second letter to the church at corinth, ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here." (5:17) paul describes the nature of the christ to the church at colossae in a beautiful hymn:

he is the image of the unseen god
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
thrones, dominions, sovereignties, powers--
all things were created through him and for him.
before anything was created, he existed,
and now he holds all things in unity.
. . .
as he is the beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because god wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross. (colossians 1:15-17, 19-20)

reconciliation and peace: this is the goal of the new creation, and of the new creator.

all of the seemingly contradictory things that are listed in the song of the three young men that we sing on saturday, "heavens and waters,sun and moon, winter and summer, fire and heat and ice and cold, nights and days, light and darkness," (see the appendix for the full text) all these things and more are reconciled and brought to peace, and their nature and purpose as revelation and prophecy of the christ to come is revealed.

the work of the holy one whose beginning was described in genesis as good is brought to fulfillment and perfected in the sacrifice of christ which we celebrate in the eucharist.

and so we finish:

deacon: go in peace to love and serve the lord. alleluia, alleluia.

people: thanks be to God. alleluia, alleluia.

(the eucharistic prayer which is quoted or paraphrased throughout this chapter is the liturgy of st. basil, the most widely accepted eucharistic prayer of the whole church, east and west, catholic and protestant.)

circle of prayer 27: marriage: may

"o father, all creating,
whose wisdom, love and power,
first bound two lives together
in eden's primal hour,
to-day in these thy children
thine earliest gifts renew . . . ." (j. ellerton)

there was a time in england when all of may was kept to onour the virgin mother of our lord. since she is seen as the model of the church, the bridge of christ, may was the most popular time for marriages.

marriage became attatched to may for other, perhaps more mysterious if related reasons as well. the feast of pentecost most often falls in may, when the holy spirit comes upon the whole church, making her a christ-bearer, just as the spirit had come upon mary. paul explored the imagery of the church as the bride of christ and what that image suggests for christian marriage in his letter to the church at ephesus:

". . . christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. he made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. in the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies . . . . that is the way christ treats the church, because it is his body . . . . this mystery has many implications; but i am saying it applies to christ and the church. to sum up, you too, each of you, just love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband." (ephesians 5:25-33)

there were additionally some pre-christian reasons for the popularity of may as the marriage month. one of the most popular beltane celebrations was the maypole, around which men and women wound strips of cloth, walking in opposite directions. after it was wound they might go into the fields to make love, encouraging the sun and earth to follow their example and be fertile. (beltane is the beginning of summer in the celtic calendar.)

in all of these examples, marriage is seen as a re-uniting or uniting of opposites, either restoring the original bliss of creation, as suggested by j. ellerton's hymn from the english hymnal, or leading to the desired bliss of creation, as in the maypole activities. it is no wonder then that the most powerful image of the relationship of christ and the church is that of marriage. the reading that most powerfully illustrates this is the song of songs, which is read at passover in the jewish liturgy.

for many such a physical depiction of love and life is shocking to find in the bible. but it has been called in the midrash (the ancient oral commentary on the jewish scriptures) the most holy of books. as such, it's association with marriage and the period following easter is another indication of the power of the seasons of the year as revelation of the love of the holy one, and of the holiness of all creation. rather than suggesting that pagan activities surrounding the beginning of summer are mis-placed, it becomes apparent that the desire for reunion is also fulfilled in the mystery of the christ.

circle of prayer 28. death and the world to come: advent

sunset of the eve of the last day of november: st. andrew's day. for the western church this is the beginning of the advent season. the hills all around are dark, cloaked in winter blue, the blue-black of ink. yet they are outlined with a golden dark glow that makes winter vespers the most hopeful times of the year, what the eastern church calls the bright darkness.

of this time gertrude mueller nelson has written, "it is advent, and the whole world is pregnant." we tend easily to assume we know who will be born: the baby jesus, the christ child. we seldom seriously reflect on "what child is this?" but herod knew. this child is the death of the old world, the old regime, the old self. for many of us this is more than we want to bear, so we, like herod, try to deny the birth, to kill the child. (matthew 2:1-18) we cover the bright darkness with watts and watts of "christmas lights." rather than recognize that "light . . . shines in the darkness"(john 1:5), rather than "casting off the works of darkness" (collect for the first sunday of advent), we put on a cloak of pretended joy, as if death did not await each of us.

"yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light." (phillips brooks)

the death that we would avoid is the only way to eternal life:

"unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a rich harvest.
any one who loves his life loses it . . . ." (john 12:24-25)

in the worlds of the mayan creation myth of the first father, "death is the door to awe." in advent we are allowed pass through the darkness of all that is old, of all that is dead, of all that no longer serves our true self, into the light of new and eternal life. this is a great and beautiful mystery. alas, many of us pass through the mystery without ever noticing it.

the eastern church honors and says farewell to the old dispensation by commemorating the old testament prophets at the beginning of december. for all the church the most significant advent saints are john, the great forerunner of the light, the greatest and last of the prophets of the old covenant, and mary the virgin mother, the first to enter the new kingdom, who took the word of god into her very body, giving birth to god the son.

all too often we react to the good news of the coming of the true king, who

". . . comes to judge the earth,
to judge the world with justice
and the nations with his truth: (psalm 96:13)

as did herod. rather than letting go our "carved images and . . . vain gods" (psalm 98:7), our understandings and pretentions and projections, we are willing to kill the innocent. we limit advent to preparing for the birth of the christ child, but we allow no room in our hearts for the child to grow.

but equally available is the way chosen by simeon, who had spent his life seeking not self-aggrandizement but "the consolation of israel" (luke 2:25), and whose song has ever since been the prayer of christians at the end of their days and at the end of their lives:

"now, master, you can let your servant go peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel.: (luke 2:29-32)

circle of prayer 25: the daily office: the day

"Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears" (sheldon harnick)


"our physical, emotional, and social systems follow a twenty-four hour cycle. this cycle normally provides an alteration of fatigue and rest, hunger and eating, work and leisure, which becomes basic to our consciousness of ourselves and our world. man must relate himself to the day and accept the discipline of it. we must begin every day with the will to make it a meaningful and useful day; but we must also be content to accep the close of the day in spite of the awareness that we may have accomplished little we must be able to sleep with reasonable confidence that we will not be attacked by enemies, beats, dreams, or demons--yet we must be wise enough to take reasonable preacautions for ourselves and others. finally, we must not be surprised that a day will come when do do not awake. a balanced and fully human life thus demands that we accept the discipline of living day by day, while not forgetting the necessity of long-range planning in many particular matters. we must have the faith that the day is good, and thankfully receive the daily bread that our heavenly father gives." (from prayer book studies 22)

"will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

"i will, with god's help." (the baptismal covenant, bcp, 1979)

the daily cycle of prayer is so simple, so repititious, that it is easy to dismiss it as merely a rote act, or "unspiritual." all sunsets are the same, too. the daily prayer of the church, the "daily office," is not telling god what we want god to do or what we want to do, asking for a blessing for what we have already decided whether it is god's will or not. it is prayer with the words given by the holy spirit, the psalms, and listening to god's speaking to us in holy scripture.

the invariable rhythm of the canticles and intercessions, the longer rhythm of the psalms, the annual rhythm of the lessons from the scripture, weave us together in a pattern as simple as our inevitable death, as complex as our unspeakable life. this rhythm provides the context in which everything else in life takes place, and underlies its comprehensibility.

circle of prayer 24a. a discursus

at first the church baptised immediately on profession of faith (see acts). but it was not long before a two or three year period of catechesis came to be norma. it is not entirely known why this happened. a common explaination is that as christianity became the official religion of the empire, people were coming to conversion with little or no idea of what that meant. karl rahner makes a passing remark in on heresy that the new emphasis on teaching was a response to heresies, especially gnosticism. when one considers that jesus spent three years with the disciples and they were often very slow to understand, the catechesis makes good sense. during this second period, baptism came under the close supervision of the bishops, who were in charge of a local church. deacons and priests had their role in the actual ceremony, as hipppolytus of rome described in the apostolic tradition, but the bishop did the actual annointing, the "chrismation" that underlies the words "christ" and "christian." hippolytus' description of the practice in this second period is worth considering at length:

"At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When
they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring
or a flowing body of water. Then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be
baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there
are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or
someone else from their family. After this, the men will be baptized. Finally, the women,
after they have unbound their hair, and removed their jewelry. No one shall take any
foreign object with themselves down into the water.

"At the time determined for baptism, the bishop shall give thanks over some oil, which he
puts in a vessel. It is called the Oil of Thanksgiving. He shall take some more oil and
exorcise it. It is called the Oil of Exorcism. A deacon shall hold the Oil of Exorcism and
stand on the left. Another deacon shall hold the Oil of Thanksgiving and stand on the right.

"When the elder takes hold of each of them who are to receive baptism, he shall tell each
of them to renounce, saying, "I renounce you Satan, all your servicea, and all your works."
After he has said this, he shall anoint each with the Oil of Exorcism, saying, "Let every
evil spirit depart from you." Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on
nude to the elder who stands at the water. They shall stand in the water naked. A deacon,
likewise, will go down with them into the water. When each of them to be baptized has
gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands on each of them, asking, "Do
you believe in God the Father Almighty?" And the one being baptized shall answer, "I
believe." He shall then baptize each of them once, laying his hand upon each of their
heads. Then he shall ask, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was
born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
died, and rose on the third day living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat
down at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the living and the dead?"
When each has answered, "I believe," he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall
ask, "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church and the resurrection of the
flesh?" Then each being baptized shall answer, "I believe." And thus let him baptize the
third time.

"Afterward, when they have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the
elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, "I anoint you with holy oil in the name of Jesus
Christ." Then, drying themselves, they shall dress and afterwards gather in the church.

"The bishop will then lay his hand upon them, invoking, saying,
'Lord God, you who have made these worthy
of the removal of sins through the bath of regeneration,
make them worthy to be filled with your Holy Spirit,
grant to them your grace,
that they might serve you according to your will,
for to you is the glory,
Father and Son
with the Holy Spirit,
in the Holy Church,
now and throughout the ages of the ages.
Amen.'

"After this he pours the oil into his hand, and laying his hand on each of their heads, says,
'I anoint you with holy oil
in God the Father Almighty,
and Christ Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit.'

"Then, after sealing each of them on the forehead, he shall give them the kiss of peace
and say,
'The Lord be with you.'
And the one who has been baptized shall say,
'And with your spirit.'"

as the church grew, the powerful expressions of the nature of baptism as initiation into the one, undivided church of christ, represented by the bishop, consisting of those who had died and risen with christ, began to change, both in how it was performed and in what it meant. bishops no longer present at each baptism.

in the west the annointing by the bishop continued to be a necessary part of christian initiation, but separated in time from baptism, sometimes by many years, and called confirmation. in the east the entire ritual came to be performed by priests.
the meaning of the rise, especially in the west, came to be less about initiation into the community of those "who were being saved" and more about individual salvation. with each schism and division that tore the Church into different "churches," the image of community became less clear and that of individual salvation more prominent.

circle of prayer 26: ordination:the ember days

as many people, christian and otherwise, have moved to the cities and adopted their commercian calendars, and as even those who live in "rural" areas have come to get their holy times from the television, ember days have mostly fallen to the wayside. this should not surprise us.

"the ember days constitute a very interesting feature of the christian year, possessing one characteristic which is entirely unique. they are the only component of our annual observances in the church whose ultimate origins lay only in the 'natural' or solar year, which gave form to most primitive religions. . . . 'the ember days of the four seasons' began by being exactly what that name implies. they were in latin the quattuor tempora, a term fused into the teutonic quatember and curtailed into the english ember. they were derived from pagan agricultural observances which originally were three in number, devoted to the winter sowing in december,the summer reaping in june, and the autumn vintage in september. it was leo the great who added the lenten days to bring the number up to the four annual fasts of the jews." so wrote the standing liturgical commission of the episcopal church in prayer book studies xii: the propers for the minor holy days (new york: church pension fund, 1958)(, pp. 84-85.)

in the church year the ember days have been times of fasting and prayer before ordinations, and time for the priesthood, both ordained priests and the royal priesthood that is the whole body of christ, to reflect on how well we are carrying out our commission.

so it is as a complaint that the standing liturgical commission wrote, "the agricultural origin of the days is still discernible in some of the lections . . . prescribed in the roman missal. it also accounts for the fact that not one single lection therein has the slightest bearing upon the holy ministry." (p. )

their complaint misses the understanding that is the basis of this whole essay, which is that the holy one uses time, and the events specific to particular times, as a prophetic self-revelation, even though, "in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his son." (hebrews 1:2)

no parable is more central to the gospels that the parable of the sower. one might even argue that in the relative parable-poor gospel according to mark, it and the discussion around it has a role similar to mattthew's sermon on the mount or luke's sermon on the plain:

""listen! imagine a sower going out to sow. now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because it had no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. and some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced rich crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold.' and he said, 'listen, anyone who has ears to hear.'" (mark 4:3-9)

add to this parable john's description of the harvest, and an agricultural typology for ministry is quite fully evoked:

"have you not a saying:
four months and then the harvest?
well, i tell you:
look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest." (john 4:35)

the feast of st. luke: thoughts about healing and listening

the feast of luke, the dear and glorious physician,comes at a time when here in the ozarks at least the whole world is hard to ignore. the trees are just beginning to blaze, and the fall and winter winds are fighting for control. two thoughts have dominated my reflections about this day, healing and listening.

it is on this wonderful day that this reading, a reading about healing, comes in morning prayer:

Ezekiel 47
Water Flowing from the Temple47Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate that faces towards the east;* and the water was coming out on the south side.
3 Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. 4Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist. 5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. 6He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you seen this?’
Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on the other. 8He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9Wherever the river goes,* every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 10People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’

the good news that luke proclaims, of healing, is for all creation.

then there are the wonderful canticles that luke includes at the beginning of his gospel,

the magnificat

and

the benedictus

and

the nunc dimmittis

, which are used every day in daily prayer. but there is also that most important statement of mary, which allows the incarnation: ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ is this not an even better response to hearing scripture than "the word of the lord" or even "hear what the spirit is saying to the churches?" i am going to try using it for a while in my prayer, at least.

circle of prayer 24. rebirth: baptism & confirmation::the pascha: easter & pentecost

one can be born anytime, but statistically one is most likely to be born very early in the morning on a new moon, the second most popular time being very early in the morning on a full moon.

likewise one may be reborn--that is, baptized and chrismated-at any time, but the church has long--1800 years long--considered the great fifty days of easter the best time, particularly during the easter vigil. the image of our baptism's partaking of the passover of the lord is even older. to the romans paul wrote, in a passage used as the epistle in the easter vigil,

"you have been taught that when we were baptised in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life.

"if in union with christ we have imitated his death, we shall imitate him in his resurrection." (romans 6:3-5)

that "we too might live a new life," that we might have the power to "imitate him in his resurrectin," christ jesus gave us the gift of "another comforter, the holy spirit." (john 14:26) this gift is in the new testament an inseparable part of the paschal event, either as happening on one day, as in john's gospel (john 20:19-22), or as the climactic event of the fifty days, as in the writings of luke (acts 2:1-4).

unfortunately the church in the west for the most part lost or abandoned, but by the grace of god is recovering and reclaiming, the power of the great fifty days, and the interconnectedness of the resurrectin of christ and the gift of the holy spirit. i believe the intimate relationship between christian initiation and christian understanding of the mighty acts of god in restoring jesus to life and sending the holy spirit is proven by the parallel ways we have separated and reunited them. rather than go into a detailed history of that understanding, let me refer the reader to the works of daniel stevnick in the bibliography, and remind one that the eastern church has never separated baptism--the immersion of the penitent in water three times as he or she confesses her belief in the father and the son and the holy spirit--from chrismation--the anointing of the newly baptised christian with oil--nor has she ever abandoned the keeping of the great gifty days.

the church in the west is recovering the understanding of that unity, if in bits and pieces. both united methodists and episcopalians, for instance, have restored to the baptismal liturgy the laying-on-of-hands that had been understood as part of confirmation, the west's development of chrismation. the episcopal church has restored at least the option of chrismation. the church of south india, that remarkable reunion of many fragments of the great church, has restored the putting on of a white garment, the ancient action referring to the description of the church in the revelation to john that gave pentecost sunday the name whitsunday in england when people waited as late in the fifty days as possible for baptism so the rivers would be less cold. no one, so far as i know, has returned to the ancient practice of requiring the baptismal candidate to put aside all garments, even jewelry, as a sign of renouncing the old life. but all of the church which acknowledges even the slightest importance of apostolic tradition is recovering easter, the pascha, as fifty days, the great week of weeks, the time to celebrate the mighty acts of god in which we are graced to participate through baptism in water and in fire.

circle of prayer 23. day:week:month:year::life

the song of simeon provides the step on which to move from the rhythm of time as it plays in the cycles of earth and moon, sun and stars, to the beat of each life:

"lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy promise,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

nunc dimmitis, book of common prayer translation

each of us is born, each of us dies. whether this happens in peace depends not on the occurances of our lives, but on our understanding, our comprehension, of them. we depart in peace if we have seen the lord's salvation.

the wonder, the mystery, is that the lord's salvation is always bigger than our understanding or comprehension. the church has over her long history founds ways of understanding the mighty acts of christ jesus, which is the fullness, the pleroma, of that salvation, not only through scriptures and tradition, but through our experience of time in the natural world. this has been the topic of this extended essay so far.

insofar as we are made in the image of god, so is christ the image of what our lives are to become, and the natural year becomes a revelation of our lives as well.

because our units of time, from a day to a year, repeat themselves in cycles, we can start our journey of understanding at any point on the wheel, trusting the returning to give us deeper faith and comprehension. what does not make sense today, this year, may be understood tomorrow, next year. but because there is always more, tomorrow and next year will bring new questions.

even though we can enter the cycle at any time, the entry most often occurs with what john wesley called the ordinary means of grace, the sacraments, which are related often to particular times of the year. the next few chapters consider those particular relationships.

circle of prayer 22. second thoughts: what child is this?

the twelve days of christmas have passed. you have celebrated the nativity of our lord until the epiphany, rather than letting the department stores control your holiday, and it still feels bleak midwinter. earth still stands hard as iron, water is still like a stone. what was it that christmas was all about?

"what child is this, who laid to rest,
on mary's lap is sleeping?
. . .
why lies he in such mean estate . . . ?"
(w.c. dix)

what really is this child of mary? what, really, is this child of god? candlemass (the celtic imbolc) and the transfiguration (celtic lughnasadh), falling on the cross-quarter days in early february and august, respond to those questions, in ways that are at the same time glorious and disturbing.

here is the story of the presentation:

"and when the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the law of moses, they took him up to jerusalem to present him to the lord--observing what stands written in the law of the lord: every firt-born male must be consecrated to the lord--and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the law of the lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. now in jerusalem there was a man named simeon. he was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to israel's comforting and the holy spirit rested on him. it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the christ of the lord. prompted by the spirit he came to the temple; and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him into his arms and blessed god; and he said:

'now master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel."

as the child's father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother, 'you see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'"

(luke 2:22-35)

it starts innocently enough. mary and joseph take the child to jerusalem "to present him to the lord." their poverty, if there had even been any doubt of it, is announced by their sacrifice: "a pair of turtle doves or two young pidgeons." nevertheless simeon, "an upright and devout man," reminds them of and confirms the message of the angels and dreams and shepherds. but to the joyful message that has come before, after proclaiming jesus "a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory . . . of israel," he introduces a shadow. to mary he says "and a sword will pierce your own soul, too." as john's gospel reports, "the light . . . shines in the dark," (john 1:5) and the dark would do everything it could to overpower the light.

so far one can see this light that is jesus as ordinary light, metaphorical light, domesticated light, as we do when the church blesses candles on this day, candlemass. the light is growing as winter moves into spring, and the light of the world is jesus, even if the light does come with a sword.

but there is more. and there is more. let us continue to hear luke's account:

"now about eight days after this had been said [--this being peter's profession that jesus is the messiah--] he took with him peter and john and james and went up the mountain to pray. as he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were moses and elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in jerusalem. peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. as they were leaving him, peter said to jesus, 'master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for moses and one for elijah.'--he did not know what he was saying. as he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. and a voice came from the cloud saying, 'this is my son, the chosen one. listen to him.' and after the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone. the disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.

. . .

"at a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he said to his disciples, 'for your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over into the power of men.' but they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said."

(luke 9: 28-36, 44-45)

this time the light's true nature is seen, light the church would come to call "uncreated light," "light from light," as she would call peter's "christ of god" (luke 9:20) "true god of true god." but the nature of the heart-piercing sword begins to be revealed as well. "you must keep these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over to the power of men." (luke 9:44)

this statement, difficult as it was and is for jesus' disciples to accept, is the very heart of our redemption. it is the corrective to original sin. remember the circumstances that are called the fall:

". . . YHWH god gave man this admonition, 'you may eat of all the trees in the garden. nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.' . . . then the serpent said to the woman, 'no! you will not die! god knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods.'" (genesis 2:16-17; 3:4-5)

what we often forget reading this passage is that the serpent is the deceiver. (revelation 20:10) adam does die, but spiritually. nor do he and eve know the difference between good and evil. we fear the one who can kill the body, and have no fear of the one who can kill the soul. (matthew 10:28) we ignore the revelation of each sunrise, of each new moon, of each springtime:

"a light . . . shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower." (john 1:51)