A prayed for Nativity - Rector's Rambling for Christmas 2021

For all of 2021 I have had an ongoing prayer intention, prayed regularly at least twice a week.

“Lord, please let us have a ‘regular’ celebration of Christmas this year” . 

 Actually, I started that prayer request in July of 2020 but apparently it wasn’t to be then. Last year we were in the midst of the restriction that we have only 10 people at an indoor service.  We were, from November of 2020 to April of this year, holding 10 Services a weekend to accommodate all those who wanted to worship and receive the Blessed Sacrament.  Last year for Christmas we planned a truncated family service outside in the garden which was well attended but bitter cold with a windchill of 16 degrees.  We sang and worshipped quickly!  We then held 6 Christmas Eve and Day Services inside St. John’s and two more off-site with 10 person limited attendance at each. 

This year, as of the writing of this column, it appears that we will be having something of a more normal Christmas celebration.  The Family Service with Pageant is back on at 4 PM, and the 8:30 Carols and 9 PM Choral High Mass are also scheduled to happen.  On Christmas Day we have our 11 AM Mass.  Although the Choir and Sunday School are still in rebuilding mode, and some parishioners have not yet returned for public worship, it is wonderful to be gathered together with our members and guests to glorify God in worship, to receive the Blessed Sacrament, and soak in the beauty of our facilities decked out for the Holy Day!

And on Sunday  the 26th, the Feast of St. Stephen, we will be gathering for our regularly scheduled 8, 10, and 5:30 worship.  I hope if you are reading this on Christmas Eve or Day you will come back on Sunday as well to join us for worship!

This is my 22nd Christmas at St. John’s, the 21st as your Rector (I attended one Christmas Eve here while in seminary in 1993).  Had you told me in 2001 that the war just started in Afghanistan and Iraq would persist for about 20 more years, that we would have a huge economic downturn and rebound, that two more sports stadium/arenas would open in the neighborhood, and that we would have a two year pandemic ahead that would actually shut down, then later restrict, churches, I could not have fathomed such things.  But here we are once again, giving thanks to God for the gift of His Son Jesus Christ being born for us in Bethlehem just as the Church has done for nearly 2000 years.

I look forward, God willing, to what God has in store for us in the coming year, and how we will respond to those blessings!

  

So close and yet.... - Rector's Rambling for December 19, 2021

    Today we are as close, liturgically, to Christmas as we can be.  It is the fourth Sunday in Advent.  Today, after the 10:00 AM service, we officially turn our decorating ability toward the celebration of the feast on Friday evening.  Yesterday we put a few of the big items in place (trees, crèche, and balcony garland), but there is still plenty of decorating to do after the service today.  Come downstairs to have a quick bowl of soup in support of the outreach ministry of the St. Catherine’s Guild (ECW), and then back up to the church to put in place the various decorations for the big celebration.

Until then we are still in the purple of Advent.  We continue to concentrate on our spiritual preparation, not only for the coming of the Feast of the Nativity, but also the coming again of our Lord in glorious majesty to judge both the quick (living) and the dead.

Today’s gospel lesson once again confronts us with John the Baptist, and his call to us to be in that state of Grace which comes from our repentance of sin and that conversion of life to which we are all called.

As I have mentioned in sermons, we all are sinners.  Some may be further along the scale toward holiness.  But most of those who are considered saints by the Church are considered saints not because they knew they were holy, but because of the depth of their repentance of those sins which they recognized in themselves!  We can only cooperate with the holiness God desires for us if we are willing to admit our sinfulness and therefore be open to the work of the Holy Ghost in making us holy.

Whether it be PALEGAS – Pride, Anger, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice (greed), and Sloth – or perhaps the Ten Commandments (see page 68 of the Prayer Book), how do we honestly measure up?  God knows, and He is offering you forgiveness and strength to be a better person by His Grace.  But if we don’t think we need His help, or need to change, the spiritual life becomes stagnant, or worse, regressive.

You are about to receive the great gift of Christmas – are you prepared to receive Him?

 

An acceptable people in God's sight - Rector's Rambling for December 12, 2021

 Once again we find ourselves getting closer to the Holy Day on December 25, and yet the Church continues to look to the end times when Jesus returns to judge the quick and the dead.               The Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent harkens to the gospel lesson for the day concerning John the Baptist’s ministry to prepare the way for Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus tells us that John announces His arrival by bidding us to prepare through repentance of our sin.   This message of repentance is a universal message of the prophets!

The second half of the collect is a prayer for the ministry of the Church, and for the ordained ministry in particular.  We are reminded in the prayer that just as John prepared the way for Jesus’ earthly ministry, so the clergy and other ministers in the church are to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ by repentance and amendment of life so that we may be “an acceptable people in thy sight”.  It is a weighty charge of duty!

This Gaudéte Sunday Collect also sets a theme for three days that are commemorated the following Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.  On these days we keep the Ember Days. 

The Ember Days are days of special intention where we are to pray for the ordained ministry, particularly for those who are preparing for ordination.  We also pray for all those who are involved in the ordination process; the parish, the diocese, and the seminary faculty and community.  Before the Bishop lays his hands on the head of an ordinand, that man has had to receive the endorsement of his parish’s rector and vestry, the bishop, diocesan commission on ministry and standing committee, and educated by the seminary faculty so that they can pass the canonical ordination exams.  It is a daunting process but one which is guided by the Holy Ghost and supported in prayer!

 

...and inwardly digest... - Rector's Rambling for December 5, 2021

 Today we have one of my favorite Sunday Collects, one which I pray nearly daily.   And it is one that I encourage you to memorize and use regularly as well. 

 

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of  everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

This Collect hits all the important points about our relationship to the Bible.  First, that it is a gift from God who in the person of the Holy Spirit inspired its writing and compilation by the people of the original covenant (the Old Testament) and the New (the Church).  The reason for the bible is so that we can come to know the Lord: His love for us, His plan for our salvation, how this has been accomplished in His Son Jesus Christ, and how it is we are to live as members who have been redeemed by His most precious blood!

The Collect then goes on to encourages us to hear them being read (in public worship) as well as read them ourselves.  But we are not only to read them but also study them in such a way that we internalize them (inwardly digest) so that they become a part of our very being.  Who we are and how we live should be formed by the Word of God. 

It is in the Scriptures that we read about God’s promise of the free gift of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus.  This is our hope as the Collect reminds us!

I pray this collect daily as I begin my time in the Scriptures.  Whether you are reading them as a part of the Daily Office or when you are reading them as a part of a deeper study, asking God’s blessing upon that time in the Bible is a helpful way to frame that time.  Asking the One who inspired their writing and compilation will also guide us in the reading and understanding of the Scriptures, that we may live as He would have us live.