Blog Archives - ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS EPISCOPAL CHURCH

March 23 - Holly Nelson

3/23/2016

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.
1 John 2:20-25

Good To Go

All of you know the truth.
I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it.
(v 20b-21a)

OK so I'm good then? I know the truth; I'm not in the dark; I'm good to go. And not just me, all of us know the truth. We must be one enlighten group here - lucky us.

Yes, lucky us indeed. And woe to us too as now we must live this truth and that's not so easy. When I Know with my mind, how do I Know in my heart then Know with my life? That I don't know. Comprehension, belief, action. Perhaps John writes to us from ages past precisely because it he knows that is hard: hard back then, hard now. We need help and encouragement and direction and a whole lot of divine intervention to live this Truth. And lucky us truly as we do have all of these things indeed. We have God's word, saints before us and among us, each other in community, and always the Sacred Spirit. I guess I really am good to go.

Holly Nelson

March 22 - Elsie Zapffe-Verdeja

3/23/2016

"If you love me, you will keepmy commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be inyou. "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
John 14:15-20

Jesus the Christ forewarns his apostles of times to come when he will no longer be in evidence as an earthly figure, but will not leave them without the Holy Spirit. He alone can give a description in so few words of the most powerful impetus given to mankind, one we take for granted since it is not tangible, has no scientific substantiation and is not recognized by humankind as a whole.

But that does not deny its existence, and can be felt by any as a spirit of grace sustaining one through times of unbearable hardship, as the spirit of inspiration behind a masterpiece that reaches out to all, as the spirit of love seen when catastrophic events occur and all humanity bonds together to support those in need.

Once experienced as a reality, the mystery of this other-worldly love is so life-changing that one realizes the need to nourish it within one's soul. Lent is just the time for reaching out beyond our human perceptions. We can only hope and pray for directions, and that our St. Michael's might be the signpost for each of us in our search.

Elsie Zapffe-Verdeja

March 21 - JP Arrossa

3/21/2016

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarushad already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,
the Son of God, the one coming into the world."
John 11:17-27

Receiving news that a friend or loved one is in the hospital or diagnosed with an illness creates angst and fear. We recognize our own immortality and feel powerless. As a community of faith, maybe we are baffled at the reasons events like these occur. Perhaps like Martha, we ask "Lord, if you had been here..." Martha has probably witnessed the impact that Jesus has on those around him and in her own community. She sees the essence of life that just seems to pour forth from Him and wants that power to flow over Lazarus and his death. She recognizes something in Jesus, but may not quite know everything about Him.

When Jesus responds to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Her response is filled with clarity. It is like Peter's response to Jesus' question in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 16:17-19). She more fully recognizes and acknowledges Jesus for who He is. She now sees Him out of his own revealing.

How is God revealed then to us in our times of trouble? Possibly in ways we do not think. God is revealed to the child in the hospital through the comfort of her mother. God is revealed through the meal brought to a family in crisis. God is revealed by holding the hand of a friend preparing his entrance to everlasting life. Just as God was in the midst of Martha's community, God is present around us. His quiet presence is with us, assuring we are not alone in our struggles. His presence is experienced by the compassion and mercy we show one another throughout our shared lives - struggles, joys and all.

JP Arrossa

March 20 - Rosanne DeFelippo

3/21/2016

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"  So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"  They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
"Blessed is the king
    who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
    and glory in the highest heaven!"
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."
Luke 19:28-40

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

I had the honor and privilege of a pilgrimage last summer to Israel. I was able to visit the places where Jesus was born, walked the earth and died. I had the unfathomable experience of placing my feet on the same temple steps where he walked and I was able to see the land that his eyes rested on during his human experience.

I was in Bethany, visiting the Church of Bethphage, which was built honoring Jesus mounting the colt and pressing on to do what he knew he had to do. His eyes were on Jerusalem, on his imminent suffering and death. There my eyes were on Jerusalem, the same vantage point that Jesus had, a surreal concept. Geographically, I always thought the events of Holy Week were so far away from each other, yet standing there, looking at the same wall that stood many years ago, I realized they were close, on top of each other in fact. I walked down the path through the Mount of Olives where pilgrims for 2000 years have followed in the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples. I walked down the Mount where Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem. So much has changed, yet so much is the same. Although this was a very solemn and grounding experience, I kept thinking back in time, how it must have been a real sight, tremendous energy!

Some things have an energy that is unstoppable. The dynamics of the human condition are unfathomable, the love, the hate, the ability to build up and the ability to destroy. Jesus and his message were unstoppable, 2000 years later, it is still strong, and those stones continue to shout. Jesus boldly accepted what he had to do; he didn't resist or bargain to prolong the inevitable. He entered the city with a gentle grace that inspires me to be what God is calling me to be. I pray for the stones of my soul shout out, to be a fraction as just and loving as our Lord.

Rosanne DeFelippo

March 19 - Ken Ogilvie

3/21/2016

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
    to devour my flesh-
my adversaries and foes-
    they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
    yet I will be confident.
One thing I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
    and to inquire in his temple.
Psalm 27:1-4

Psalm 27 begins, "the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?"

Once we say it aloud, this passage includes us all in God. Do you ever wonder why we give things up for Lent if we are already included in God's infinite embrace? One reason is that humanity's search for a holy embrace has a long history worth revisiting.

Ages before Jesus showed on the scene, people sought the holy embrace by seeking pleasure in all its forms, denying nothing. If you had unlimited food, wealth, drugs and sex, you must be happily close to the center of holiness. This isn't at all like Lent. In fact it was more than likely you were a local prince who came to power via violence or greed - not so much holy, just envied. Later came people seeking a connection to God by denying themselves food, water, clothing, shelter, even by tormenting their bodies. Is this some sort of role model for Lent? Let's hope not.   Then, 500 years before Christ, Buddha tried both of these approaches to life. He was born to the hedonistic life, embraced it with enthusiasm, then abandoned it for the severely ascetic life and practiced that path for several years. He found both paths wanting. After a long long long contemplation, he preached the Middle Way - a contemplative path to holiness. Interesting, but where do Jesus and Lent fit into this narrative? And what about that Easter thing? Lent is, after all, a warmup to the joyous mystery of Easter. Being a temporary ascetic and giving up something on our way to Easter is confusing.

It's a bit more confusing because Jesus did not seem to preach asceticism for everyone. He did demand it of his disciples - they had to give up their homes and families. But for everyone else he taught love, unconditional love. By extension he taught us to see God in every person. In that love, and in that seeing, we would find that we all share God's unconditional strength. Jesus taught it, many saw it, and then he was killed on the cross. What a mess- no wonder the disciples were in lost in confusion.

Two days later came Easter. The witnesses were profoundly astonished.
God's infinite power exploded before them in the resurrection. Jesus wasn't just all talk, He was the Real Deal. Out of the confusion that had followed Jesus' death, the resurrection brought on an urgent need to actually go back and re-listen to His messages of love, to hear Him, and to rediscover the call to follow Him. God had astonished them so thoroughly that they could not ignore the call.

Back to this Lent thing. Today, are we to give up something for Lent as a prep for a few people being astonished two thousand years ago? It has to be more personal and more sublime than that or we'd have abandoned Lenten rituals long ago. Could it prepare us to experience the power of God here and now? Yes, it could. In fact, it does. We have a chance to feel the strength of God come gently alive in ourselves merely by denying ourselves something we felt was essential to daily life. In this very self-denial we get the chance to rediscover that God's embrace will carry us forward with ease.

Our quite personal daily rituals or pleasures turn out to be our individualized ways of actually avoiding reliance on the strength of God.   Once in a while if we nudge our lives out of the daily rut, calm ourselves a bit, listen with our hearts, listen with prayer, we find His sure embrace there and waiting. Lent is when we annually nudge ourselves a little harder.   Remembering that God's embrace is always there, do it, it's just a nudge.. Give your life a nudge, bump something out and accept the Embrace that follows.

Let us pray that with these small nudges God's safe embracing love will shine a bit more within us day by day.

Ken Ogilvie

March 18 - Ann Donohue

3/18/2016

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3: 14-17

Today's reading is from Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, a man struggling with the notion of believing in "heavenly things", particularly about the concept of being "born of the Spirit". He is having trouble accepting the words of Jesus without more rock solid proof. He likes the miracles Jesus has performed - they are real proof -- but when Jesus is describing being "born from above", meaning born of water and the Spirit, Nicodemus has problems. He wants more proof, preferably miracles, of the spiritual messages Jesus is teaching. So Jesus tries to put it in a context that as a Pharisee, leader and teacher of the Jews, Nicodemus could understand and accept.

He reminds Nicodemus that when Moses was talking with God in the wilderness, Moses was extremely uncomfortable with the idea that he is forceful enough to convince the enslaved Israelites that he will lead them out of Egypt, that they can and will take on the Egyptian power structure. So the Lord directs him to throw his staff to the ground, where it turns into a snake. Yikes. Then the Lord tells him to pick it up - yikes, again -- and it turns back into a staff. The Lord tells him to do this when he is speaking to the Israelites so that they will be convinced this is a message from the Lord and will follow Moses' leadership.

Now God has sent his Son Jesus as the ultimate proof that "everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Like the lifting up of the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Throughout Jesus' life, he is constantly asked for proof of his mission. How much proof do we need?

Ann Donohue

March 17 - Andy Core

3/17/2016

Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made his grave with the wicked
    and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4-9

I like to play a game as I drive along. Look at each person you see walking beside the road and say out loud "There goes Jesus!" Often, the little game will make you laugh, but sometimes it will bring tears to your eyes.

An assortment of people plods along our streets. There are the deliberately scruffy college kids, the old men who are out for some sun because they are tired of being cooped up in the house with the old women, and every now and then someone stumbles by who is so drunk that staying upright is a challenge. But, the ones that catch my attention most are the dirty, tired, hungry, homeless ones. They sort of sneak out of the bushy hideaways quietly, so as to avoid the attention of the police and sheriffs.

Isaiah speaks of the one who bore our infirmities, carried our diseases, was wounded for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities. Could it be, in this land of plenty, that the infirmities, transgressions and iniquities of those of us who are clean, well-fed, well-rested, comfortable and warm are laid on these? Could these be our Savior? "There goes Jesus!"

Andy Core

March 16 - Heather O'Shea

3/17/2016

Then they all shouted out together, "Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!" (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting "Crucify, crucify him!" A third time he said to them, "Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him." But the kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.
Luke 23:18-25

The morning I signed up to write this devotion, there was a traffic jam at the table. When it was my turn, feeling that I should make my choice quickly, I selected the first open slot I saw. Reading my passage this afternoon, I'm regretting my haste.

In Luke 23:18-25, Jesus, cleared of the charges against him, stands before Pilate an innocent man. Undeterred, an angry mob shouts, "Crucify him!"

I remember being shaken by this reading every year as a child, especially when the congregation was exhorted to shout out the words. "Crucify him! Crucify him!" we'd yell, feeling in ourselves the frenzy of the angry mob.

Last night I was reading the passage in Matthew where, realizing Mary and Joseph had outsmarted him, King Herod murders every child in Bethlehem under the age of two. Somehow I've never let Rachel's weeping color my understanding of the nativity. Is the holy family, infuriating Herod by whisking Jesus away to safety, somehow implicated in those murders? It's a lose lose.

I wonder if Jesus knew about the children who were killed while Mary and Joseph escaped with him to safety. I wonder if he thought about those children as he stood before the crowd calling for his death. I wonder if that's why he was silent.

I don't pretend to know. Today angry mobs seem to be shouting everywhere. I wish the story had another character, a different ending. I want there to be a woman standing on the edge of the crowd, not yelling, not clamoring for the death of either man. I want her to be pregnant, one hand resting lightly on her belly, her whole body clamoring for life.

Heather O'Shea

March 15 - Holly Seward

3/15/2016

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Colossians 2:13-15

I believe the text implies that fulfilling arbitrary cultural requirements are not necessary or even relevant in receiving God's graces. God is much bigger than rules.
Substance supplants form. In fact, God is so big that even when we miss the mark in fulfilling substantive duties, God is still with us.
This is a comfort to us as we inevitably fall short by not fully standing with the poor or comforting that obnoxious motorcycle-vrooming-at-midnight neighbor who dropped a wrench on his big toe. And it hurts.

Holly Seward

March 14 - Grace Collins

3/14/2016

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:21-25

"he entrusted himself to [God]..." Jesus entrusted himself to God many times...most especially in the garden at Gethsemane; "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Mark 14:36

How often I have made difficult decisions using logic...or lists of pros and cons to make "real world" decisions. But when I pray for God's help and meditate, the answer comes to me more clearly, more surely. Sometimes the answer comes like a lightening bolt, or an inner commanding voice. Sometimes not the whole answer, but the next step...and then the next...God enlightening our lives as we move along the path.

Grace Collins