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Rector's Message
Come unto Me all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
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On Fatherhood

Happy Fathers’ Day. When I noticed on the calendar the approach of this observation, I girded my loins mentally for a challenge.  I can speak only as a son and as a pastor, without direct experience of the highest calling made to men as a sex. But based on considerable insight of other and betters, here goes.

One of the most telling of God Laws is the FIFTH of the Ten Commandments: Honor your father and your mother … that your days may be long and it may go well with you. If that means being respectful of Papa produces Mondays that feel more like 48 hours than 24, I am akin it. But the real intent is to assure a long, honorable and prosperous life to be enjoyed as a result of properly honoring one’s parents. Now the first four commandments, not suggestions, mind you tell us how we must revere and respect the One True and Only God; the last five instruct us in right relationships with our fellow human beings. Singly in the middle, a kind of fulcrum, is, Honor your father and your mother. In other words, this core relationship is pivotal, central to all else, a connection between relating to God and each other generally, and a precursor to all other right relationships.

The word for HONOR literally means, to be weighty. Sure enough, the dear old Dad of American depiction, when he is not being maligned by all the stronger, more capable women in his life, is cast as the “heavy,”….darkly and despondently as Willie Loman to trivially innocuous Cosbys and Bart Simpsons. However, the usage is intended to be entirely laudable and positive; to honor here is to treat with great weight of authority and dignity. It is therefore well that we remember today that God tells us fathers are owed respect, attention, and unless clearly detrimental, deference. Fathers are God-created fulcrums poised in the chain of our being between us and God the Father Almighty, and between us and everyone else. We learn much of who God the Father is, and is not, by our earthly fathers.

You may be ready to tune out this Hallmarkian glow as naive if not sunk in denial. Perhaps you can share the attitude of a parishioner I overheard before service: someone ask her how late she usually sleeps on Sundays, to which she replied, That depends? Depends on what? On how long Jess preaches.  BUT I am really not trying to lull you with sweet sentiments of idealized parents created in the image of Norman Rockwell. No honest history of most father-child relationships would be all sweetness and light – FAR from it. As long as fathers and children are human, there will be grave shortcomings on both sides!

Be that as it is, God sets the standard, the ideal: Fathers are to be father-like as is God; sons and daughters are to be respectful and receptive as we are to the Heavenly Father. And if that is seriously contemplated or tried, one thereby confronts the necessity that goes to the heart of the Gospel: FORGIVENESS. It can be very, very hard to forgive your father for not being what you think you wanted or needed him to be. How to understand, much less respect human fathers, warts and all, may be difficult, but for the maturing it is requisite. Perhaps even more, we must work bravely at repenting for how we have fallen short in being good sons and daughters. Failed them we have, and forgive them and ourselves we must. That is the harbour of God’s wisdom and peace.

            We must deal with, respect, admire, forgive, serve, and HONOR our fathers; we must understand we are called by God to be better fathers and sons and daughters. And whatever the difficulty we encounter in these roles assigned to us by the Creator, know this: honoring and honorable fathers are not only central to all other relationships we will ever develop; they are preliminary to the Kingdom of God. Take the Bible’s word for it: And he ( speaking of the immediate forebear of the Coming of the Lord) will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse (Malachi 4:6). And sure enough, John the Baptist came as predicted, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared (Luke 1:17). For Heaven’s sake, God will be honored, and will call us all to the standard of honoring  fathers and being honorable fathers.

Let our prayer be this day, that we as children should in our hearts and minds love, revere and forgive our fathers, for that is preliminary to our healing. And fathers, know that you are called to such a vastly important role in God’s Creation; be thankful for the honor, grateful for God’s trust in you, and humble as you work out this great responsibility. There can be no final peace until our hearts are set on one another as God intended, in love, forgiveness, and respect. This is a most holy day because there is one God and Father of all who created us, sons, daughters, and fathers, in His own image. Reflect that.

Let us pray: Most merciful Father, help us to see that to honor you we must honor our earthly fathers. Help us to love and revere them as Your gift, for the gift You intended them to be. Help us to forgive ourselves when we fail to honor and be honorable. May Your grace so transform our relationships in all their strengths and failings that they may be a sign of Christ’s love to this sinful and  broken world, that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt and resentment, and joy conquer despair. All this we ask because through Jesus Christ you are Our Father. Amen.

for further reading:  Wild at Heart,  Eldridge

 
Quotation du jour

 

 If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

 

 A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C. S. Lewis

 

 

Yes, Mr. Ostrich, our hosts are persecutors

The Christian Aid Association  and Release International, Christian apolitical agencies working in China, warned that the Chinese Government is pursuing a tough crackdown on “illegal religious activities” under the guise of preventing disruptions to the Olympic Games. Their conclusion is one shared by the head of Open Doors USA, Carl Moeller: "Unfortunately, there has been a crackdown on house church leaders in wake of the start of the Olympics," he said. "It's a travesty that hundreds of Christians sit in prisons while the Chinese Government pats itself on the back for its hosting of the Games." Pray for Chinese Christians this month that God may remember them, though the rest of the world discretely avert its gaze instead of this evil.

 

More quotations from C. S. Lewis

Can a mortal ask God a question He finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very,' or 'great' or 'perfect' when you mean 'good;' otherwise you will have no word left at all when you want to say some is really infinite or great or good in the full meaning of those words.

 

 

We must not measure the reality of love by feelings, but by results. Feelings are very delusive. They often depend on mere natural temperament, and the devil wrests them to our hurt. A glowing imagination is apt to seek itself rather than God. But if you are earnest in striving to serve and endure for God's sake, if you persevere amid temptation, dryness, weariness, and desolation, you may rest assured that your love is real.

... Jean N. Grou (1731-1803)

 

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More and other reflections

He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. O that today you would hearken to His voice!

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

The Scriptures say that all we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way. I think I can still visualize my parents nodding in grave assent! Ba-ba black sheep was the theme of my youth and I was as heedless of the Master’s voice as He allowed me to be. Perhaps you know something about being a sheep, as Holy Scripture so often characterizes us. But because character is habit long-repeated, as Plutarch, one of the greatest character assessors of all history observed, it is indeed a habit which, as such, can be learned or unlearned. Let’s think a minute about what being a sheep of such a Shepherd as our Lord could mean for us.
 
Let us consider this metaphor as how it may inform our decision making. Yes, yes, the 23rd Psalm, The Lord is my Shepherd, is most often resorted to for comfort and solace, but surely it is also a primer in strength and what is means to follow God. More specifically how does it inform the human situation of making decisions? We individually at home, school or work are constantly called upon to make decisions large and small. As a parish you are in a very important season of decision-making. What does this most fundamental of pious guides, the 23rd Psalm have to teach us about that?
Before you get started, though, get over is our thought of being exceptional. Yes, we are unique but not entirely exceptional. In the Bible exceptional situations and encounters of supernatural drama are described, and Christians sometimes think that such is a literal model for their own affairs day to day. A voice from heaven, angel in a dream,…even a talking donkey on one occasion in the Old Testament speaks God’s guidance, and wouldn’t that be an amazing result of Mule Day here! But that’s not normal, and we in the main are God’s ordinary sheep. God gave us minds to think, so let’s. I find many Christians who are spiritual wait for special or particular guidance because they are specially or particularly spiritual. Actually, those should require less the talking donkey approach and rely more on the Holy Spirit within.
Consider first, the Lord is my Shepherd. That is a general principle for guidance. It means we are to go with the Lord, being shepherded and guided by his actual presence among us. The Shepherd has an intimate relationship to His sheep, and so they move together. Walking with God in our life is about constant resort to intimate, accompanied direction. It is the difference between Mapquest and having the voice of a personal escort with us – the latter is much surer, and consequently comforting.
Sometimes we fancy we know the destination so we can run on ahead. But that is foolish and may involve getting separated, lost in our way or worse, in harm’s way. When we forget to depend constantly, actively on the Lord at our side, that’s what can happen. Or sometimes, underestimating the surety of his presence we become afraid to move forward. But He is there to nudge us along if we will trust Him, take it one step in faith at a time into the unknown, which is known to Him!
Second, He leadeth me in paths of righteousness of His name’s sake. What a wonderful promise to keep in mind. The path we follow if we stick close to Him will always be one of righteousness for our God is a moral God. He is, in truth, more concerned that you move out in each step in moral rightness than that you run ahead, overleap the flock and show that you can get here first. God’s paths are righteousness; it is to those we are called. Teach me your ways, prays the Psalmist elsewhere.
The learning is this: the way, the process of getting wherever is what God wants us to concentrate our efforts on, to adhere to doing things the right way. God will take care of the destination! If you take the next step abiding with Him and don’t cut corners or make compromises, but adhere to right pathways step by step, HE will make certain you reach His goal for you. That is what being led by God entails. That sort of humility and trust – NOT the prescience to be a walking Mapquest, but the sense to be a following sheep. If your procession is Godly, God will insure the result!
Third. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Abiding in the righteousness of God, being sure our every thought and step is submitted to Him does NOT mean we will avoid some threatening passages. That does not mean we have lost our way!!! Ask Jesus if obeying God involves some stress and jeopardy.
 
Three points = traditional sermon. Four applications.
1.      God’s guidance does not have to be overtly supernatural. It may be in a memory, it may be in a small word we notice from a neighbor or even someone we hardly know. Listening for God is most profitable as a way of life in all our circumstances. Those who prick their ears to hear will hear.
2.      Every choice of a destination is one right, one wrong –WRONG. Yes, the decision between being a policeman or a cat burglar involves a clear right and wrong, but the decision to interview a candidate from Tennessee or Arkansas may not be clearly morally right or wrong, correct or mistaken. BUT how you do it will make all the difference as to whether it turns out to be righteous…or not.
3.      Those last were negatives. Two positives: First, we have to stretch our minds and hearts and work hard at it. We may well not prove to be the children of Israel who if we will quit complaining just long enough, and pray just hard enough, God will drop lunch into our laps! Take time to use the gifts of mind and those minds working in complement to assess your motives, goals, needs as opposed to wants, the effects of one decision over another on all those to be effected. It is not simple. Consider Saint Peter, or Saint Paul and the strain and hard work of discernment that was their job time and again in leading the early church, and that on the coat-tails of Jesus. Decisions may be hard but for minds dedicated to right pathways God promises a blessed result, dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.
4.      Make it our business to keep our reliance on Him constant, never assumed, taken for granted. Are we seeking to please Him carefully, or are we trying to achieve what we know is the best goal, the only proper candidate, etc. When we approach with such conclusiveness we are perhaps putting the cart before the mule. Better to ponder how each step pleases our Shepherd and make it our vigilance to stay so close by His side that only He can see the destination ahead, we need not demand that same precision from afar.

Father, grant that Jesus will like a Shepherd lead us in paths of righteousness that your Name may be glorified in our lives and in this place. Amen.

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