Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Dear Friends

Do you remember that Mazda commercial which included the jingle echo that went “Zoom, Zoom Zoom”?

Here is my schedule this week for my “half time”* interim position: Count the zooms! (*not complaining…just busier than before the pandemic, like many). It is sprinkled with a few pastoral calls and e-mails each day to stay connected with members, including a birthday calls

S      8:15   Washington National Cathedral (Bishop Curry preacher)

        9:30    St. Dunstan’s, Carmel Valley  (Canon Saville preacher)

      10:30    Zoom Coffee Half Hour (last week it went an hour- much fun)

M   11:00    Zoom small group meeting with Bishop on topic of Eucharist                       and on line worship; sermon, newsletter prep

T      9:00   Taping for following Sunday worship 

      12:00    Zoom Liturgy Planning Mtg.    

W    9:00    Zoom Rotary Mtg.

        8:00    Zoom Morning Prayer (Martyrs of Uganda)

      10:00    Zoom Staff Mtg.

        1:00    Zoom Diocesan Clergy Mtg. with Bishop

        2:00    Zoom Deanery Clergy Re-Entry Planning Mtg.

T     9:00    Weekly Phone Call Meeting with Sr. Warden

     10:00     Weekly Phone Call Meeting with Associate Priest

       2:00     Zoom Mtg. with St. Dunstan’s Re-Entry Team

F     Day Off

S     Day Off  (But this week, 2 pm Zoom Parish 2021 Planning Mtg.)                               

    

      I can only imagine the new classes and curriculum coming to on line seminaries when it comes to the on-line church we are becoming and will continue to be. And the question should not be “When are we coming back to church?” but “When are we coming back to the future church?" which is already happening now.

John

P.S. Kathleen keeps busy too and it’s not just sewing…cutting my hair, cooking three meals a day for the last two months, keeping a diary, light gardening, household cleaning and light repairs, grocery shopping, walking, taking pictures of flowers…!

Lord, have mercy upon us...

 Dear Friends

The challenge of taping your Sunday service and sermon a few days before it is “delivered”, is that the news can change. (Also, you can't change the hymns, as I used to do sometimes!) 

If I were preaching on the Day of Pentecost this Sunday in real time, it would be hard to ignore what has/is happening in Minneapolis, and what continues to be heard from one of the residents at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. 

Two verses from 2 of the 18 hymns in our Hymnal about the Holy Spirit come to mind.

I dedicate the fourth verse of hymn #508 to the memory of George Floyd: 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die;

But live with thee the perfect life, of thine eternity

And while many are guilty of sowing seeds of division, the tone is set at the top. And so, to all who are tempted to keep it up, I would ask them to consider praying the third verse of hymn #513:

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!

(And it would also help to review the fruits of the spirit 

as listed in Galatians 5:22!)

John

P.S. Fruits of the Spirit picture is painted on the wall in the St. Dunstan’s nursery.

Birthday Blog May 25, 2020

Dear Friends

Mindful that he is a controversial figure, which came to light again when he was under the microscope during his hurdle filled path to sainthood, I like these words written by Fr. Junipero Serra. But I don’t take them literally.

Life is to be lived forward (day by day, of course!). We should adopt Paul’s mindset as he writes to the Philippians (3:14), “Forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

But as I celebrate my 68^th birthday today, I cannot help but look back and give thanks for so many wonderful memories, more than I could have ever imagined, more than I deserve. And as I near the end of my first three years of retirement, my recent memory book is overflowing. Who knew I would be blessed to continue to serve congregations in Hawaii, Alaska and now Carmel Valley, California?

During this pandemic, I, and I suspect others in their “seniorish” years, look back knowing that some opportunities and adventures may no longer be possible, or at least will have to be postponed. I still dream of a grand road trip across America to see things “one more time” and discover and visit new sites. I hope to sing in a full church again someday. I want to drop in on my Dodgers during spring training and enjoy another Dodger Dog under the bright Arizona sun and skies.

We all must go forward; it is the best way and direction to live. But it is okay to look in the rear view mirror once in a while. It is okay if only for a quick glance, if only for a reminder that the good Lord who brought all of us safely to May 25, 2020, is not going to abandon us now or prevent us from enjoying different and surprising fresh blessings, in the new world being created before our eyes.

John

Change

Dear Friends

Change. I’m not talking about coins in a pocket or coins in a fountain or coins lost in a car seat. I’m not talking about changes in seasons or styles, diets or moods, or changes that come with “a new sheriff in town”.

I am talking about the current phrase that is coming at the end of the sentence, whenever we speak of anything in the future. I will be staying at St. Dunstan’s a bit longer than first expected, subject to change. Kathleen and I will be going home in a couple of weeks to take care of some business, subject to change. I will be having lunch with Clayton Kershaw, (Dodger’s pitcher), next week…well, that’s not subject to change...it’s not happening for sure.

Even the most important information we long for right now, including rules and guidelines about dealing with and understanding this virus, is subject to change. Changing the channel can change your mood from being hopeful to being alarmed, but I’m talking about what apolitical doctors and scientists and studies are saying. The honest ones are admitting “it’s subject to change”. A vaccine might coming sooner than expected. Or not.

How is one to plan for anything in this “subject to change” world? How can anyone be sure about what to do or not to do when even experts’ opinions are subject to change, like a weatherman and all his or her data and metrics and models and maps, still only making the best prediction at that time.

Phrases from two hymns and a prayer help me. “Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place” reminds me that I am a lifelong “work in progress” under the supervision of a God who loves me along the way, no matter what. “Me through change and chance he guideth” gives me the same assurance. And that phrase leads me to the prayer which says, “may we who are wearied by the changes and chances of life, rest in His eternal changelessness”.

Change? Well, that’s my two cents worth for now. Subject to change!

John

Let's hear it for the earth!

Lord how thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye

If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky

(From Hymn 398 by Isaac Watts)

       

Today, April 22, is the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. But, of course, people well before 1970 were already drawing our attention to the beauty and wonder of God’s creation and the urgency of being good stewards and protectors of “this fragile earth, our island home”.  

       

The two names that immediately come to mind for me are John Muir, who founded and became first president of the Sierra Club in 1892, and was known as the “Father” of the National Parks (remembered on our church calendar today). The other name is Rachel Carson , author of “Silent Spring” in 1962, which opened the way for her to become known as the “Mother” of the modern environmental movement.

     

I was blessed to grow up camping and hiking in many National Parks with my family and had a father who wrote poems about most of them. I loved watching the Ken Burns series on the National Parks, “America’s Best Idea.” But while Muir has fed and filled me for a lifetime through his many books, a quote from Rachel Carson seems especially relevant right now, reminding us that nature is as close as our back yard, a walk through the neighborhood, or just opening our eyes to greet each new day:

     

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature---the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter.” 

    

Especially right now, people all over the earth are experiencing a kind of extended, stay indoors “winter”, while waiting for a vaccine and a more free, outdoor spring sometime in 2021. In the meantime, perhaps nature is teaching us some lessons we have forgotten or taken for granted; lessons about discipline, strength, endurance, patience, and a deeper understanding of all of nature’s cycles which lead to one glorious resurrection after another, “repeated refrains” as Carson wrote.

Repeated refrains? All things bright and beautiful.... indeed!

John

We can still smile

Dear Friends

After “attending” church at our Washington National Cathedral, watching our El Camino Real Diocesan Easter Service and then doing some “Youtube Church Hopping” throughout the day---I would just like to bring you Easter greetings in a different and light way, through the two cartoons above. The caption to the second one is "What I don't get is how one minute we're a symbol of new life and the next minutes we're a sandwich".

Today, Easter Monday, and the entire week through this coming Sunday (which was once called “Bright Sunday”), has many rich traditions.  For centuries, in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week was observed by the faithful as "days of joy and laughter", with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced. The customs were rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) who suggested that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risus paschalis - the Easter laugh," they called it. It reminds me of that phrase from the first verse of the hymn “Glorious things of thee are spoken”:“thou mayest smile at all thy foes”.

I am not suggesting that any of these traditions are appropriate this year, as we continue to live through a time of global anxiety and suffering. We have so many to pray for including those making the greatest sacrifices of all. We continue to shelter in place and wear masks when we do go out, for love of neighbor and those who have to go to work.

But even in the middle of this deadly pandemic, we need to find reasons to smile and bring some joy to others-----like the sun breaking through clouds.  

John

What has not changed

Dear Friends

English Priest William Law, who died on this day in 1761 said,

“If we are to follow Christ, it must be in our common way of spending every day. If we are to live unto God at any time or in any place, we are to live unto him in all times and in all places. If we are to use anything as the gift of God, we are to use everything as his gift.”

I share these words because it is so easy, in these present circumstances, to focus on things which have changed and forget what has not changed. We are still following Christ. We are still loving God and our neighbor as ourselves. We are still trying to live forward, day by day, for the one who is loving and guiding us through this wilderness to a new land. We are still God’s beloved, without condition, beyond measure; knowing that can put this extraordinary time in perspective.

So on this Maundy Thursday, when we are, among other things, re-imagining what Eucharist is and can be, I would just offer this prayer “To be Thankful”, by Avery Brook from his book, "Plain Prayers in a Complicated World”, remembering that the word “eucharist” means thanksgiving:

We have many things to be thankful for, God. And sometimes we remember them, and other times we forget. When something large or small goes wrong, it fills our minds and we forget those things for which---when we remember---we are thankful. Help us to remember the good things, God (especially during this time). To name them; savor them; and be thankful to you.  AMEN.

John

P.S. Picture is from my office, in my home away from home. No buffalo roaming, but the wildflowers are blooming!