Message for the New Year

Dear Friends

Following is the message I am sending out to my current parish tomorrow.  May "The Power of Hope" (Rose Parade theme this year) be with you always!

“May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

As I was walking home from the market a couple of weeks ago, this mailbox and its message caught my attention.  It made me think of this quote (from “Mere Christianity”), for the January 2^nd entry in my book of C.S. Lewis meditations:

"The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter voice come flowing in.

We can only do it for a moment at first. But from those moments a new sort of life will be spreading through our system, because now we are letting Christ work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through."

You and I may not literally wake up happy every morning, but that is certainly the place we hope to reach at some point during the day. May Christ’s deep love soak right through you in new and surprising ways today, and each day of this new year.

Fr. John

Interim Rector

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Friends

With only 48 days until Valentine's Day, I was so relieved that the store I went into today was ready! I woke up this morning with only one thing on my mind: I was determined that I wanted to get my dear Valentine something special this year. When I saw I that I could "Spread the Love" for just $5.94, my heart soared!

Alas, when I looked more closely, I saw that the special cookies I had now decided to get for my Valentine were best if eaten by January 23rd!!! How could this be? Where is the manager? What am I to do?

Perhaps love can be spread early, even before February 14th. Or after February 14th, for that matter. And maybe cookies aren't the only way I can share my love this year. 

Indeed, just as I was trying to figure this all out in the parking lot, I saw a huge truck pull up to the loading dock. Imagine my surprise when I saw the truck driver open the back and bring down on a dolly several cases of........you guessed it, chocolate Easter Bunnies!!! He went by too fast for me to see when their "best used by" date was.

Perhaps some new words need to be written for that song....

"On the third day of Christmas, my true love game to me.. 

3 crumbling cookies and some chocolate bunnies coming real soon" 

John

Come, Holy Spirit, Come

Dear Friends

We are now headed for an impeachment in the House, an acquittal in the Senate, and a country more divided than ever. While I have a strong opinion about what the Senate should do, I am more concerned that our current Divider in Chief will continue to divide and make things worse, at a time when our country needs healing more than ever.

Since he is incapable of being a Healer in Chief, and the current political climate will make it difficult for anyone who might replace him to take on that role, the responsibility falls to "we the people".

Paul, writing at the very beginning of the 4^th chapter of his letter to the Ephesians says, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

We can’t wait for or count on an election next November to end the deep divide we are experiencing now. It will still be present, whoever is elected, although hopefully it will be someone who can help begin to turn the tide. But consider this; by our baptism, we have already been elected to lead and be by example, instruments of God’s love and peace, healing and unity, by what we say, and by what we do.

That’s not always an easy job, so let us pray the final verse of Carl Daw’s hymn 513, as a reminder that we don’t have to do it alone:

With the healing of division,

with the ceaseless voice of prayer;

With the power to love and witness,

with the peace beyond compare:

Come, Holy Spirit, Come

John

P.S. Below: Picture of plaque of St. Francis, at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, Carmel Valley. Perhaps we should add a line to the prayer attributed to him:

Lord, make me an instrument of your healing