GOOD NEWS

Dear Friends

In a world of breaking news---usually bad---yesterday we celebrated the best of the good news---sin and suffering and death don’t have the last word---God has the last word, Love has the last word. “God so loved the world…”

But as I said in my Easter sermon, it is not enough to proclaim the good news of Christ’s resurrection. We must claim it for ourselves and then share it with others by making, creating good news each day by our words and deeds. Beyond words and deeds, we also create good news simply by living with hope and joy in the light and love of Christ. That has a power beyond our knowing, but not beyond someone else’s noticing and experiencing for themselves.

The Garden Island, Kauai’s daily newspaper, has been running a series of articles on the one year anniversary of the flooding that devastated so much of this beautiful island. Last Thursday, the headline was RISING ABOVE THEIR TROUBLES---ANAHOLA RESIDENTS REFLECT ON LIFE CHANGED.

Easter changes everything. Easter is good news. Easter turns the headline CHRIST IS DEAD to CHRIST IS RISEN. Enjoy your risen life and thank God for opportunities to make and share and enjoy good news.

Excuse me now as I read, mark and inwardly digest not the scriptures, but my candy bar which has been patiently waiting in the refrigerator during Lent!

John

P.S. Have some fun---imagine some good news headlines you’d like to find when you pick up the paper on any given day.  This coming October, for example, I’d like to see 

                               THIRD TIME IS CHARM

                       DODGERS WIN WORLD SERIES

And in November of 2020......

March 27, 2019 "Stayin' Awake"

Dear Friends

Some of you know that I am always on alert for "PSI's"---possible sermon illustrations. They come in all sorts of forms, from bumper stickers to headlines to random personal experiences. But a couple of weeks ago, it came in the form of a product being sold in a shop.

SERMON is the name of a coffee blend produced by Verve Coffee Roasters. As you can see if you enlarge the picture, the ingredient descriptions include "chocolate", "blueberry pie" and "velvety".

I took this picture as a "PBI"---possible blog illustration---which it has now become. But after seeing people nod and doze during my sermons (those trade winds are so relaxing), I wish I had bought a package so I could serve it before people come into church. It could be called a "pre-service" coffee hour.

And so now I am initiating a nationwide or should I say island wide search for this product, as I cannot remember where or what shop this product was being sold. In the meantime, I guess I will have to close the multiple open windows and doors in the two churches I serve, at least during the sermon, but then provide cups of water so people don't pass out.

John

Ash Wednesday, March 6,2019

"Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return"

Dear Friends

And this week's reminder came from land (tornado victims in Alabama) from the air (helicopter crash victims in Kenya) and from Hollywood (Luke Perry). Life on earth is not only fragile but temporary and sometimes people die suddenly, without warning, way too soon.

But beyond being reminded of our mortality (and immortality!) Lent is a time to examine our souls, still in training, still growing or shrinking. The following quote from John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" was used to conclude a powerful op-ed piece in the New York Times last week about a current political situation. Our challenge, at least for this day, is to read it not as an observation about someone else, but a reflection on our own lives:

“Humans are caught — in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too — in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill.”

To this I would add Psalm 103 and 2nd Corinthians 5:20-6:10, readings appointed for Ash Wednesday, filled with good news worth feasting on this day of fasting. If you didn't get to a service today, you will be rewarded by reading these two passages.

John

"All my stoles are unpacked..." March 2, 2019

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

cause I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Dear Friends

Correction: "All my stoles are unpacked, I'm ready to preach..." 

Greetings from the vicarage at St. Paul's, Kekaha, on the island of Kaua'i, in the state of Hawai'i. Kathleen and I have returned for our second opportunity to participate in the rotating clergy program for the Episcopal Church of West Kaua'i (ECWK). I will be officiating for the 8 am service at St. Paul's and the 10 am service for St. John's, Ele'ele (about 10 miles apart).

What makes this time extra special is that we will be here for tomorrow's last Sunday after the Epiphany (green stole), Lent (purple stole), Holy Week (red stole) and Easter and the Sunday following (white stole). The stoles made it through airport security just fine, but I almost came without my collars and collar buttons. An alert TSA agent came running after me with them...they had been accidentally removed by another agent who was confiscating  my too large shaving cream canister!

Needless to say, Kathleen and I are blessed to be here again and I look forward to staying in touch through this blog. 

Now it is time to finish unpacking, settle in and start preparing for the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper which we are hosting at the vicarage. Because people prefer them, we will be pleased to prepare and present pineapple-papaya pancakes, and pray that a pleasant time is had by all.

John

Rise and Dine! January 6, 2019

Dear Friends

Happy Day of Epiphany! On the way to church this morning, I drove by our local Sonic Burger and saw this wonderful visual aid:

Instead of  "Arise, shine for your light has come" (Isaiah 60:1), the theme for my children's talk, this balloon (which looked to me like a light bulb) declared "Rise and Dine! Open at 6 am". I can't wait to show up for breakfast tomorrow and thank the manager for his or her great, if perhaps unintentional, Epiphany Day message which I, of course, added to mine. Not only should we arise and shine on Epiphany, we should rise and dine every Sunday morning, rise and go dine, go have a special meal we call Eucharist. 

In any case, I told the children that of all the seven "I am" messages that Jesus spoke..."I am the Bread of Life", "I am the Good Shepherd",  "I am the Resurrection", for example... only one

---"I am the light of the world"---is transferred to us: "You are the light of the world". (I found myself when distributing the host this morning saying "You are the light of the world".)

To help us remember one way to be the light of the world, I suggested 5 words: 

                    Listen  Inquire  Give  Help  Thanks  

The first letters of the five words, as you can see, spell LIGHT. When we meet other people, we listen and inquire so we can give help and then give thanks to God for the opportunity. 

And while I'm thinking of thanking, thank you God (and Sonic Burger) for providing this surprise and timely visual aid, while driving to church this morning.

John

Some words/notes for the New Year, January 1, 2019

Dear Friends

I hope you have been enjoying the Rose Parade and this year's theme,  "The Melody of Life". I don't know any of the 21st century songs or lyrics of this year's Grand Marshall, Chaka Khan, but I do know these 17th century Slovak words translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda from our hymnal, #250:

I especially like verses 2 and 3:

His love abundant far exceeds
the volume of a whole year's needs;
rejoice, rejoice with thanks embrace 
another year of grace

With such a Lord to lead our way
in hazard and prosperity,
what need we fear in earth or space
in this new year of grace?

I used this Celtic saying in a sermon on Christ the King Sunday a few weeks ago:

The King is knocking! If you would like your share of heaven on earth, open the door and let in the King!

I would now add these words by Henry David Thoreau which I found on my 2019 planning calendar this morning:

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads"

And those words made me think of these words by Isaac Watts from Hymn #398:

I especially like this line: 

Lord how thy wonders are displayed, 
where'ere I turn my eye
if I survey the ground I tread
or gaze upon the sky!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, wherever you look in 2019!

John

Earthrise on December 24, 1968

Dear Friends

It was fifty years ago this Christmas Eve that Apollo 8 gave us our first view of an “earthrise”, as we heard the astronauts read from the 1st chapter of Genesis. That epic photograph, with the surface of the moon in the foreground and “this fragile earth our island home” surrounded by the utter emptiness of space, gave us a brand new perspective which, if we let it, can still cause us to pause and wonder today.

Some argue that this photo spurred the modern environmental movement. If nothing else, I am humbled when I stare at it. My personal or the world’s problems can seem huge at times. To survive, we face and work to solve or overcome them, but we must not dwell on them. Then I step back several million miles and my faith is renewed. Planet earth is not just a vicious circle. Why?  Because we have a good God who created it and us, and that good God continues to give us opportunities to work and pray for peace and justice every day. In addition, against the backdrop of this picture, (and eternity for that matter), I find the little things that irritate me disappear and the big ones seem much smaller.

Fellow Episcopalian Frank Borman was Apollo 8’s commander. He had been scheduled as a lector at his parish on Christmas Eve until NASA moved up the launch date. Now that would have to be one of the best excuses of all time to get out of an assignment!  (I can imagine his call to the rector: "I'll be out of town this Christmas".)

Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and another Apollo 8 astronaut, James Lovell Jr. , were among several speakers at a recent remembrance service at our Washington National Cathedral. Curry said of the moment, “I wonder if God said ‘Now y’all see what I see’ and then explained with a twinkle in his eye that “y’all” is from the King James Version of the bible. He also encouraged us to see this as “a moment of re-consecration and dedication, and to mount on eagles’ wings and fly, to explore new worlds, to mobilize the great knowledge of science and technology, and the wisdom of humans to save this oasis, our island home.” 

Bishop Curry said that some believe this moment “changed human consciousness forever”.  At the least, it should bring us to wonder and ponder and remember that, as they sang at the cathedral, “He’s got the whole world in His Hands.”

Merry Christmas!

John