Round 2

So, I may have forgotten for the past six months that I have a blog.  Turns out, maintaining this blog was much easier when I was updating everyday instead of once a week (which turned into once a month...then never).  For that reason I have decided to, once again, take up blogging for Lent.  My goal is to have a post published every day, except Sundays, from now until Easter.  Hopefully, this will turn into a habit and I will do a much better job of keeping up with the blog the rest of the year.  We'll see.

Tonight, I will be leading an Ash Wednesday service at St. Andrew's.  I always find myself pondering this interesting juxtaposition of a service wherein we hear a Gospel in which Jesus tells us, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven." (Matthew 6:1) and then have our foreheads marked with ashes.  How can we reconcile these two seemingly opposing messages?   

(If you are in the Dayton area, please stop reading now and come to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Salem Ave. for our Ash Wednesday service at 7:00pm to get the answer.  Yes...that was a plug.) 

I find an answer to that question in the prayer said immediately prior to the imposition of ashes:

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. -Book of Common Prayer, p. 265

As with many things in the church, the ashes are to be for us an outward sign that means nothing on its own.  If we just come to church to have ashes put on our forehead, we are missing the point.  Instead, there must be something going on in our hearts that correlates with this sign.  Today, the ashes should be a sign, not of our piety, but of our penitence.  They remind us that we will eventually die, and there is nothing we can do to prevent that from happening.  They remind us that eternal life is a gift that we can only receive by acknowledging that everything we have done to "earn" it has been wrong simply because we cannot "earn" it.

With that, I invite you all to join me in the observance of another holy Lent.

Still Alive

This summer has certainly been a long one.  My last post (back in the beginning of June) was as I was finishing a week long residency for the Second 3 Years program.  So much has happened in my life since then, but I will attempt to give you all a glimpse of what has been going on for me these past three months.

After the Second 3 Years residency in Virginia, I got back to Cincinnati just in time to go to the priesthood ordinations for two friends in my diocese and pack for another week long trip.  This time, it was to a small town in Tennessee with a group of youth for St. Timothy's annual trip for the Appalachian Service Project.  If you've never heard of ASP, the best way to describe it is as a relationship ministry that does home repair on the side.  While we did a lot of physical labor down there, the bigger labor was that of love.  We all grew close to the families we worked with and found that leaving them behind at the end of the week was a difficult task.  We also grew closer to each other.  During that week, new friendships were made, and old ones were strengthened.

We returned from that trip with just enough time for me to prepare for a week of Vacation Bible School with over 200 kids.  Along with three helpers, I led a group of 23 fifth graders on what was, essentially, a Christian themed field day that lasted for five.  I don't need to tell you how intense this week was (especially to all you teachers out there who deal with groups like this without additional help). As hectic and draining as this week was, it was still a wonderful week, ending in time for me to gather myself and prepare for my last Sunday at St. Timothy's.

Many of you already know that my two-year residency at St. Timothy's ended on June 30, with June 26 being my last Sunday.  Leaving a place that feels like home is always paired with at least a little sadness, but I was able to also leave with a great sense of happiness at time well spent with people who loved me and helped me grow into my ministry.  To all of you from St. Timothy's who are reading this, thank you so much for helping to prepare me for wherever I was to be called after leaving you.  To those of you not yet aware, I left St. Timothy's without knowing where my next step would be.

At the end of June, I packed up my apartment and moved almost everything into storage.  The next five weeks were spent as the "Super Sub" chaplain at Procter for our diocesan summer camps.  Again, while my time spent there was physically draining, I have nothing but fond memories of my summer spent at camp.  Three weeks in, I received a call to be the Priest-In-Charge of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Dayton, OH.  The hours following that were filled with rejoicing and celebrating with the staff and youth who were at camp that week.

After camp ended, I finally gave myself a chance to take a break.  With a couple weeks until I was to start at St. Andrew's, I took the opportunity go on an actual vacation: a four-day cruise to the Bahamas with my girlfriend!  Neither of us had been on a cruise before, but we'd both readily go again.  We got back from the cruise with enough time to catch our breath and relax before moving day arrived.

After a long and wonderful summer, moving day finally arrived a week and a half ago.  Today was day one at St. Andrew's.  I'm eagerly looking forward to many more days to come.

Second Three Years

After a bit of a hiatus from blogging, I'm back.  I simply could not let this week go by without a post.  After 2 years of ministry, I am back on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary.  Why am I here?  2 years ago, (it's been 2 years already?) toward the end of my senior year in seminary, my class was offered the opportunity to participate in the Second 3 Years program.  This primary purpose of this program is to continue the formation that began in seminary (i.e. the first 3 years) through the early part of our ministry after graduation.  It seems like only a month or so has passed since I was last here, but there have been a few changes on campus since I graduated, though.

First, and I've written about this before, the seminary chapel burned down last October.  When I arrived on campus on Sunday, I saw the "ruins" for the first time with my own eyes.  This, of course, has led to other changes.  Since the formation of future leaders of the church is kind of a big deal here, the seminary needed some place to hold worship services.  What was once a sort of communal gathering space just outside the refectory has become the prayer hall.  Since the seminary will not have a usable chapel building for at least the next few years and having the usual gathering space is an important part of being a community, the auditorium in which I received my diploma is being leveled in order to become the new temporary worship place.  Perhaps the most startling change has been the conversion of the small dining room (a room I remember as a place where they stored extra chairs) has become the 1823 Café.  They are still waiting for their liquor license, but this is sure to become a favorite hangout spot on campus.

Some things, however, have not changed.  I am staying in one of the student dorms, and I have no idea how I managed to sleep on a twin bed all 3 years of seminary.

This week has been a long one.  Our days would start with Morning Prayer at 8:30 am, and we have had some form of continuing education workshop every day, sometimes not finishing our days until an 8:30 pm Compline service.  While I have certainly learned a lot this week, what I will take away the most is the opportunity that I have had to reconnect with friends and colleagues.  Sadly, I must once again leave this amazing group of people to rejoin the rest of the world.  I am so very happy to be a member of the VTS Class of 2009, and I look forward to keeping in touch with my class mates as we all continue to grow in our ministries.

PS - I am not the only one of my class with a blog.  Take some time to check out their blogs:

Rev. Mibi

Not Graceful but Grace Filled

Time Flies

This week I have been seeing a lot of status updates on Facebook about last papers turned in and receiving invitations to multiple ordinations.  Suddenly, I realized that this year's graduating class from Virginia Theological Seminar is the last class of students that I studied with.  It's amazing how fast the years have come and gone.  I can still remember showing up to campus and meeting this new class that had already formed such a strong bond with each other.

I must say that seeing all these Facebook events for ordination services has me so excited for the future of the church.  Sadly, I will not be able to attend most of them, but I will definitely be keeping the entire class in my prayers as they get ready for commencement and ordination.  This past year has been difficult for those of us with ties to VTS, and I can only imagine that difficulty being magnified for the current students.  

Back in October, the 200+ year-old chapel at VTS burned down.  A Google image search of VTS chapel fire will bring up sad results.  The chapel was more than just a worship space.  It was a place where future leaders of the church were formed.  It was a place where the entire community would gather together to celebrate our common life.  Looking at the pictures today, I still struggle with the loss, not of a physical space, but of a spiritual and sacred space.  The plans for what will be done with the ruins of the 1881 chapel have just been released.  If that were not enough, a member of this year's graduating class passed away less than 2 weeks ago.  It is sad to think of how much has been lost this past year.

With all of this sadness, my prayer is that this year's graduating class never lose sight of hope.  Though the chapel has been lost, the message over the stained glass window behind the altar is still in our hearts: Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.

VTS Class of 2011, God's blessing be on you all and guide your footsteps all the days of your life.

What Is This Feeling?

I have a feeling that just about everyone reading this can remember where they were on September 11, 2001.  I found out what had happened when I showed up to my scientific physics class at Westerville South High School.  As I walked into the room, the tv that always hung in the corner (in case we had a video to watch in class) was turned on and tuned in to a news channel.  There was an image of some building and a lot of smoke.  My first thought was that we were going to do some interesting work with fluid dynamics or a study on how fire spread through a burning building.  It didn't take long for me to realize that we weren't going to have a physics lesson that day.  Instead, we all sat or stood in shock at the news we were receiving.

My most prominent memory of that time is that I couldn't seem to process anything.  The events of the day leading up to that moment are fairly clear in my memory.  I left my French 3 class and made a stop in the commons to buy a bag of Harvest Cheddar Sunchips to eat on the way to physics.  From the point of entering the classroom on, things are a bit hazy.  The one thought I can remember having is simply wondering if this was real or just some elaborate hoax.  As far as emotions go, I don't remember feeling anything.

Last night, I got a text message from a dear friend saying that Osama bin Laden was dead.  Perhaps it's because I haven't fully recovered from Holy Week and Easter yet.  Perhaps it was that it was so late after a long Sunday.  Perhaps it was that the news was simply too much for me to take in.  Regardless of why, I remember having that same feeling of emptiness as I tried to process the news that Osama bin Laden was dead.  This is where the beauty of social networking has, once again, been made unavoidably present in my life. As I was spending some time on Facebook today, I noticed that a lot of my friends have posted something about this news.  The best news to me is that, so far, most of these posts, while using different words, are all saying the same thing.  This is probably best summed up by Todd: "Celebrating death is tacky.  Please stop."  A number of other posts have gone on to include prayers and Bible passages to more fully express why celebrating death (even of a known terrorist) is "tacky".

On friend made a post to his blog called Mourning After.  Another wrote a note on Facebook explaining his reflections.  Others simply quote Scripture ("But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" -Luke 6:27; "Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble" -Proverbs 24:17; "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?" - Ezekiel 18:23) and prayers:

"O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." -Prayer For our Enemies, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816

Many thanks to all of my friends who have helped me to process this situation and reminded me once again of the difficult and seemingly counter-intuitive way of life we Christians are called to follow.

Old Material, New Post

About 2 years ago, I took a course on the first 11 chapters of Genesis.  One of the final assignments in that class was a creative presentation based on something found in those chapters.  For your reading pleasure, I present to you my first attempt retelling a biblical story through poetry.

I should note that Gates was one of my classmates, and he referred to a poem by Wendell Berry in his presentation the week before I did mine.  Joyce Kilmer is the author of the poem "Trees", which is quoted towards the end of my poem. I'm sure most of you will recognize this famous poem in my first two lines.  Also, I'll try to make the strategic pauses noticeable as this poem was meant to be heard, not read silently. (The class was not aware it was a poem until after I had started.)

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
Last week, Gates inspired me
to do something with poetry.

By now...I'm sure that most of you can see
that I am speaking rather candidly.
I decided to be as plain as can be
And am putting forth rhymes blatantly

Last week's poem was heard problematically
By those of us who think mathematically
And its rhyming scheme A B C
Followed by D E F and G.

Maybe repeating an A or a B,
But thus ends the rhymes of Wendell Berry.
Now back to that poem about a lovely tree
Of which Joyce Kilmer does speak rather highly.

In the beginning there was a garden, you see,
And in the middle of which there was a tree.
Right there in the middle, it did stand freely
Created by God, it showed its beauty

This poem talks of such things so poetically
That I felt I had to share it with all of...
    ye?
This poem is so beautiful, you'll see.
Just follow it...
    for a bit...
    with me.

Roses are red, violets are blue...

No, that's not it at all
I want to speak of a time before the Fall.
Please forgive me, I've lost my place.
Let's go back to the start of the human race.

When God sat down and created we
(I know I'm not speaking grammatically)
God created us so that we could be
Forever with God in eternity.

But all of that changed when they ate from the tree
That the Lord God had made so beautifully.
And this rhyme has gone on rather endlessly.
I will change it before we reach infinity.

That crafty serpent, oh so clever
Asked of Eve if she could never
Eat of any tree made by the Lord God.
A question that, I'm sure, sounded odd.

For God had told Adam in words quite clear
Of the foods they could eat in the garden, here.
And Adam, I'm sure, told his partner, Eve,
Who one day unto him would surely cleave

But I've jumped ahead in this narrative story.
(I've gone back to that rhyme! I'm terribly sorry.)
Let's get back to the question, there's much at stake.
And this was Eve's response to that crafty snake.

She stood, defiant, and lifted her head
And told that snake what she thought God said.
"'Of the trees in the garden you are free to eat
All of those that bear fruit which taste so sweet

"Except for the tree that stands in the middle.'
It's placement here is, to me, a riddle.
God said this, I don't know why.
On the day that we eat it or touch it we'll die."

But the serpent said, "Oh, that's a lie.
Surely this fruit will not cause you to die.
Take a look at the fruit, it's juicy and sweet.
Just the perfect thing for you to eat.

"God knows that this fruit will make you wise,
And there can be no equals in God's eyes.
You will know good and evil if you eat of its fruit,
And, if Adam also eats, he'll be less of a brute."

Eve stood there. She was almost sold
After hearing the story the serpent told.
She stood and looked at the tree in awe.
A magnificent view, I'm sure, she saw.

She started to turn herself around,
But then she heard a compelling sound.
Soft, but clear, she heard the serpent's voice
Reciting the words of Kilmer, Joyce:

"I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

"A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

"Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems were made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."

I tell you all, it's not quite often
That we get to see the cinch in our coffin.
But there it was when Eve did take
The fruit of the tree that God did make

She took a bite of the fruit so sweet
And gave to Adam for him to eat
What was the fruit? An apple or pear?
I do not know (I wasn't there)

This, sadly, is where my story ends
But where our collective history begins:
When Eve in a new light did see
The knowledge of good and evil tree.

Alleluia! Christ Is Risen!

With us celebrating Christ's resurrection, I wanted to highlight another resurrection of sorts.  This blog started out as my 2011 Lenten discipline.  So far, I have successfully posted every day, Monday through Saturday, with only small exceptions.  Over this period of time, I have realized how beneficial blogging has been as a spiritual practice for me.  Therefore, I have officially decided to continue this blog even now that Lent is finished.  I will not be posting daily as I was during Lent, but I will continue to post a blog at least once a week.  Thank you to everyone who has followed me on this journey.  I look forward to continuing down this road with you to see where it goes.

The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!