Going in Circles, Getting Whole

Walk the Labyrinth at St. Margaret's in Palm Desert, CA

“Going in Circles, Getting Whole” by David Burgdorf (a Forum participant) will set you in motion for the moving meditation that is the labyrinth. Every month the Labyrinth Guild at St. Margaret’s offers a time to experience the labyrinth within a group setting. I invite you to participate in this walk.

Need additional inspiration about walking the labyrinth? I share the wisdom and experience of Macrina Wiederkehr a Benedictine Nun. Hip Deep in Tears opens her experience to you and will serve as an introduction to the power of the labyrinth. This is one tiny example of encounter with the power and mystery of God within the labyrinth. You will have your own story to tell. Come and walk.

God is ready to spend. Are you ready?

Quote . . .

You, made in God’s image,
stamped with God’s likeness,
you are God’s valuable coin.
God intends to spend you
according to God’s desire,
to spend you on life,
on what delights God.

Read Spent, a reflection by Steve Garnaas-Holmes on Matthew 22:15-21
(the Gospel text for Sunday 10/16/2011).

I am grateful for writers, poets, and the power of words. I am grateful for this reflection by Pastor Steve. Let us resolve, fellow travelers, to be spent by God as we journey together through this place at this time.

You’ll want to use BibleMap.org

Here is a resource that’s as easy to use as Google Maps: BibleMap.org. It is still being built, so be patient.

Once on the site, enter a book and chapter in the search panel (usually on the left). As soon as I selected the book (from the drop-down list) and the chapter number the map appeared.

Here’s what I got for 1 Thesslonians 1

Click the map – go to the map

Once you have the map you may navigate it as you do in Google Maps (use the controls on the right side of the map). You can zoom in or out. You can navigate in all compass directions. Clicking on a map pin will give you even more information (and choices).

In addition, you will find Paul’s Missionary Journeys mapped out. In the upper right hand corner click on events (sandwiched between home and report an error). I selected Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey from the pop-up list and received this map:

Click the map – go to the map

Have fun with this bible map tool. Share your experiences and questions here (Comments and Replies) or in the Forum on Sunday.

A Proper 24 Art for Readings October 16, 2011

PONTIFICATE OF BENEDICT XVI
7th YEAR – 2011
GOLD COINAGE
100 EURO
THE STANZE OF RAPHAEL
The Room of Heliodorus
Click to see the Vatican Coin Catalog Numismatic Issues from 1939 through 2011.

Click to see the Wikipedia entry for The four Stanze di Raffaello (“Raphael’s rooms”) in the Palace of the Vatican .

Click to see the Wikipedia entry for the title “Pontifex Maximus.”

And they brought him a denarius.
Then he said to them
“Who’s head is this, and who’s title?”

The Holy Spirit: Calling out a great cadence

“Will you strive for justice and peace in the world? I will, with God’s help.” –From our Baptismal Covenant

“Green isn’t a fad. We’re not drawn to it because it’s hip. We are called to advocate for the Earth out of a deep sense of love and respect. Love for the generations that we will never know. Respect for the soil that we came from. We are from dirt; and to dirt we will return. (You can quote us – and Genesis – on that.) –Ashley Graham-Wilcox, in Spreading the seeds of eco-justice a reflection on her learning in the Eco-Justice Immersion Experience sponsored by Episcopal Leadership Institute for Young Adults.

Wild Goose LogoThe title of the Sunday Morning Forum (and this blog) is chosen for a purpose: we intend to hear what the Spirit is saying. We intend to hear the Spirit in the readings appointed for Sunday and in the stories of our lives (individually and communally as parishioners and friends of St. Margaret’s in Palm Desert). We intend to hear the Spirit in the news we read or hear and as we listen to the stories of other men and women of faith interpreting the news by their words and actions.

I hear the Spirit leading me, leading us (the people of St. Margaret’s), further along the path of justice and peace in fulfillment of our Baptismal Covenant. Consider:

To respond to the needs of our constantly changing communities, as Jesus calls us, in ways that reflect our diversity and cultures as we seek, wonder and discover together.
To prepare for a sustainable future by calling the community to become guardians of God’s creation

  • Our Rector’s vision that “Justice is at the heart of what God expects us to do and be: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 from The Rector’s Desk, November 2011
  • The ongoing work of the St. Margaret’s Outreach Center feeding the hungry and offering the companionship and comfort of our faith to those who struggle

This month our Outreach Commission initiated a prayer service for healing at the Outreach Center and launched a PB&J Ministry to help feed the hungry The October 2011 View

  • In August 2011 young Episcopalians (like Ashley) gathered in Seattle to encourage each other to lead folks like you and me to a sustainable future—as a matter of faithful living in the Reign of God

Ashley’s reflection is straight forward and gives me great hope

  • In September 2011 our bishops asked that every Episcopalian

   … take steps in our individual lives, and in community, public policy, business, and other forms of corporate decision-making, to practice environmental stewardship and justice, including (1) a commitment to energy conservation and the use of clean, renewable sources of energy; and (2) efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and whenever possible to buy products made from recycled materials  Read The Bishops’ Pastoral Teaching

  • This summer our Vestry decided to go forward with a solar energy project for the parish (and the community)

Hear what the Spirit is saying? IT SOUNDS LIKE THE SPIRIT IS SHOUTING.

Pay attention!Which leads me to remind you and encourage you to encourage our Forum member, Sherry, and our Deacon Cherry Remboldt, who are advocating for our parish-wide use of Fair Trade coffee and compostable cups in our fellowship. This is a small step, to be sure, “to practice environmental stewardship and justice” using the words of our bishops, but it’s a step in the right direction.

As I write, Cherry and Sherry are helping the Outreach Commission sort through the costs and logistics of this move which, of course, will put us in step with our Baptismal Covenant, our Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation, our Rector’s vision for our parish, the work of our Young Adult Leaders, our bishops’ recent Pastoral Teaching (and invitation), our ongoing work for justice and peace as we serve others (for the love of God) in our community, and our commitment to build a sustainable future (our vestry’s vision—right in line with the vision of our bishops—as we take up a solar energy project).


Let’s stay in step with the Spirit who is calling out a great cadence for us.

How’s your Hebrew?

 

The Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls

Some of you may have seen one of the traveling exhibits of the Dead Sea Scrolls (in 2010 the exhibit was in San Diego). Now The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls are available to all.

You can even view the video presenting this latest addition to online biblical study.

With a little effort you can compare portions of the Dead Sea Scroll to the standard Jewish translation in English (if, like me, you don’t read Hebrew). The directions are on each page describing the scroll about to be viewed, like The Great Isaiah Scroll.

You can read more about this online at The Anglican Journal.com

Enjoy. Leave a comment here. Continue this conversation. Be blessed by God’s Word today.

A 23 Art for October 9 St. Paul

GRECO, El
(b. 1541, Candia, d. 1614, Toledo)
Click to open Web Gallery of Art Artist Biography and to explore other works by this artist.

Apostle St Paul
1610-14
Oil on canvas, 97 x 77 cm
Museo de El Greco, Toledo
Click to open Web Gallery of Art display page.
Click on their image to enlarge/fit page etc.

I had a hard time choosing between El Greco (who began painting icons) and Greek icons of St. Paul. Click Here for one.
Click Here for another.

Righteousness

On Sunday 10/2/11 our class discussion touched on Phil 3, ‘righteousness’ ‘from the law ‘or ‘through faith in Christ’, and we took ‘righteousness’ to be a matter of virtue and good behavior.
Marcus J. Borg in his book Speaking Christian treats of this conventional meaning of righteousness and then offers the following.

This meaning is frequent in the Bible. In Psalms and Proverbs, as well as elsewhere, the “righteous” and the “wicked”-those who do what is right and those who do the opposite-are often contrasted. In Proverbs especially, the righteous are promised rewards: they will prosper (e.g., 15:6). (The books of Job and Ecclesiastes challenge this claim. Sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Doing “what is right” does not guarantee a nice comfortable life. The prosperity gospel is wrong.) In contexts like the above,righteousness is a quality of individuals or groups who do the right thing.

Righteousness and Justice

Very importantly, there is another primary meaning of words commonly translated into English as righteousness and righteous. This meaning is social and political, not just individual. It refers to the way a society is put together-its political and economic structure, its distribution of power and wealth and their effects on society, from the microcosm of the family to the macrocosm of nations and empires.

In these contexts, righteousness would be better translated justice. Righteousness and justice are so closely related in the Bible that they are often synonyms. Consider a passage from the prophet Amos in the 700s BCE, two centuries after the establishment of a monarchy and aristocracy in Israel. The domination system Israel’s ancestors had known in Egypt now operated within Israel itself. The rich and powerful had created a social system that benefited themselves, and the result was a huge gulf between rich and poor, powerful and powerless. The poor and powerless-most of the population-were virtually a slave class.

Speaking in the name of God and addressing the rich and powerful, Amos contrasts their worship of God with what God really wants.

I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;
will not listen to the melody of your harps.

But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (5:21-24)

Note the last two lines. What God wants, what God is passionate about, is justice and righteousness. These lines illustrate a frequent feature of biblical language known as synonymous parallelism, in which a second line repeats in slightly different language what the first line says. “Let justice roll down like waters” and “righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” are synonymous phrases. Justice and righteousness are not two different things, but the same thing. Justice is righteousness, and righteousness is justice.

Marcus J. Borg, Speaking Christian, HarperCollins 2011, pp. 134-136

Love your neighbor, love the earth, while sipping your Pumpkin Spice Coffee

With Cherry Remboldt, our deacon, Sherry (our co-facilitator) has approached the Outreach Commission of the Vestry about serving Fair Trade Coffee at St. Margaret’s. The Commission is studying the logistics of the proposal. Stay tuned. Meanwhile …

… Sherry reports that Fresh & Easy is offering fairly traded Pumpkin Spice Coffee for the fall. In her note to me she continues, “The reason I mention this is because, for one, it’s really good, and for two, I’ve never seen a fairly traded flavored coffee before … woo hoo! on behalf of coffee farmers and Fresh & Easy!”

Let us encourage each other (and our friends and neighbors) to purchase Fair Trade Coffee (and other items) to support farmers and other workers and to (better) care for the environment. This is something our bishops have gone on record to support with Bishop’s Blend Coffee and their Pastoral Teaching about stewardship of creation. Let us be “doers of the word.”

How long will the land mourn?

Today (10/4) our Church remembers that crazy saint (Francis of Assisi) who found sisters and brothers every place he turned. His great hymn of praise thanks God for Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Sister Water and Brother Fire. A favorite story of mine is how he brought peace to Gubbio through his conversation with Brother Wolf. In the spirit of Francis, with the insight of this holy man, the bishops of the Episcopal Church issued a “Pastoral Teaching” in September 2011:

We, your bishops, believe these words of Jeremiah describe these times and call us to repentance as we face the unfolding environmental crisis of the earth:
 How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who live in it the animals and the birds are swept away, and because people said, “He is blind to our ways.” (Jeremiah 12:4)

The mounting urgency of our environmental crisis challenges us at this time to confess “our self-indulgent appetites and ways,” “our waste and pollution of God’s creation,” and “our lack of concern for those who come after us” (Ash Wednesday Liturgy, Book of Common Prayer, p. 268). It also challenges us to amend our lives and to work for environmental justice and for more environmentally sustainable practices.

They go on to outline their perceptions, offer their insights and commitment to work to heal creation, concluding:

…in order to honor the goodness and sacredness of God’s creation, we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, commit ourselves and urge every Episcopalian:

  • To acknowledge the urgency of the planetary crisis in which we find ourselves, and to repent of any and all acts of greed, overconsumption, and waste that have contributed to it;
  • To lift up prayers in personal and public worship for environmental justice, for sustainable development, and for help in restoring right relations both among humankind and between humankind and the rest of creation;
  • To take steps in our individual lives, and in community, public policy, business, and other forms of corporate decision-making, to practice environmental stewardship and justice, including (1) a commitment to energy conservation and the use of clean, renewable sources of energy; and (2) efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and whenever possible to buy products made from recycled materials;
  • To seek to understand and uproot the political, social, and economic causes of environmental destruction and abuse; (iii) 
  • To advocate for a “fair, ambitious, and binding” climate treaty, and to work toward climate justice through reducing our own carbon footprint and advocating for those most negatively affected by climate change.

Read the Pastoral Teaching of the Bishops of the Episcopal Church

My question to Forum participants: how can we add our active commitment to the commitment made by our bishops? What kinds of things can we do at St. Margaret’s, RIGHT NOW, to walk with our bishops while following the footsteps of St. Francis? Leave a comment. Share your responses here or email me: Dan I think we can …