Trinity Episcopal Church Claremont NH

A Snowday for Families for Play and Learning

2012-01-21T11:02:00.001-05:00

A Trinity Saturday Snowday

Saturday February 18

For Trinity Kids and their Families

1:30 pm Gather with prayer and laughter

2 ish Outside: Play with the Rector - for All little ones and squirmy adults too

Inside: For parents, grandparents, godparents Conversation about current

thinking in Neuroscience, Child Development encouraging the growth of

Healthy Body Mind and Spirit with Sara Groesch Ph.D.

2:45 Hot Chocolate and visiting

at the home of Justin, Elizabeth, Jasper and Lee Burrows

740 River Rd Plainfield New Hampshire

Occupy Advent

2011-12-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

Occupy Advent:

Night Prayers

for the Season of Waiting

Harried? Hasselled? Worried?

In need of Breathing Space?

Burdens too Heavy to Bear? Lonely?

Need to hold onto the Light in the Deepening Darkness?

Thursday December 8 6:30 pm

- and -

Thursday December 22 6:30 pm

Come Sit in the Light

Celtic Harp, Sacred Conversation, Prayers for the Weary World

Come be Refreshed

Just for Fun

2011-10-17T16:09:00.002-04:00

Blessing of the Beasts

2011-10-11T11:53:00.001-04:00

The Golden Calf, and the Reign of God

In Exodus we read of weary, freightened people who traded their gold, and the promises of God's protection for a 'god' they could see. An yet God did not abandon the. In Matthew we read the parable of the outraged king who rants at the wedding guest who did not grovel and kiss the kings feet, and pay due respect by putting on a proper robe. The King stunned guest trussed up like a turkey and tossed out into the outter darkness.

It may be so with the world, but not so in the Reign of God. The only binding in the Kingdom of Heaven are bindings made of love, bonds of affection, and friendship and faithfulness. Oh we can make other bindings; bindings of judgment and anger and self righteousness.

We can create any number of Golden Calves that reflect well on us and badly on those other people. But those are not of God’s doing. So let us give thanks for the Abundance of God’s blessings, blessings poured out on all flesh (canine, feline, mustelidae and boas and humanoid) and let us come to God’s love feast until the goodness in us is polished and shines brighter than our anxiety and our fears. Amen.

Bread of Heaven

2011-09-20T08:50:00.000-04:00

The Kingdom of Heaven, the Reign of God – when things are set right, and people are set right with God and each other – is coming even for slackers and complainers. Bread from Heaven comes for each of us, for all of us.

God heard the whining of the desert wanderers longing for the good food of Egypt. Moses didn’t have to report their complaints. Moses didn’t have to send a memo, document the concerns, come up with options. God who led them out of Egypt knew that they were hungry, knew that they needed their daily bread. God provided. Not the food they knew, not the recipes they loved. God gave them something new and strange

and strangely nourishing. The Glory of the Lord appears to the complaining people in the form of edible droppings on the dewy morning grass. It’s a test. There. Take that. You have what you need, now do you trust God to take care of you?

Apparently not. They ate, and they wandered, and they continued to complain. They had the law, they became a new people, they entered the Promised Land. And they continued to complain.

Even up until the time of Jesus, they were still waiting for the Glory of the Lord to appear to them. Surrounded by Roman soldiers. Surrounded by corrupt government officials. Surrounded by self righteous religious leaders who preached a brand of religion that only those who didn’t have to work 10 hours a day in the blazing son could actually sustain. The lucky ones had a job working 10 hours a day. The unlucky ones were often standing around, waiting and hoping that somehow they would get some hours and be able to feed their kids.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who had a huge harvest. Instead of leaving the management of the harvest to his farm manager, the owner himself went to park downtown and saw people waiting for work. He hired a bunch of them for the usual daily wage and sent them off to the farm. A few hours later he went by the park and saw people standing around, waiting for work. He put them on the payroll too telling them he would give them a fair wage, and sent them of to the farm. Late in the day he went by and saw some more standing sitting under the trees in the wilting heat. He hired them too. And late in the afternoon he saw more people who were in despair. No work for them today. He pulled over and spoke to them out of the window of his truck – Hey you folks. Why are you standing here? No one hired us today. He told them where the farm was and sent them of to join in the harvest.

At then end of the day the Farmer told his foreman to pay the workers, beginning with the last group and he stood back to watch. All the workers crowded around to get their money before going home. The ones who had only worked an hour go paid the full wage and when home thrilled beyond belief. They would have more than oatmeal for supper,

and maybe supper tomorrow too. The next group got paid, the same wage. When it was the ones who had been hired first, they looked at their daily wage as the bills were counted into their hands by the foreman and were astonished. Yes it was the standard for a days work. Yes they did agree to work and get paid. It was perfectly fair, but it wasn’t equitable, was it. They started to complain.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like ... the Glory of God which shines on us all, complainers, and slackers and hard workers alike. Not that many of us work all that hard according to God’s rules. Not many of us are really ready to go out into the harvest, and work in the noon day sun. Not many of us are ready to share the faith that is in us with friends and neighbors or even our own relatives who might be look for a reason to hope for a new start, longing for a possibility that mistakes, can actually be forgiven, longing to believe that deep wounds might finally be healed, that a fresh start is possible, that Resurrection is possible. Not many of us love our neighbors as ourselves after about an hour of really really trying.

Not that many of us welcome change, even when we say we adore the God who is always doing a new thing. We hardly ever say “great – some new Manna has appeared. We don’t know what it tastes like, or how to cook it, but Great we have something new and interesting to try!” Alas, we are more likely to complaint than to be thankful.

But even for us slackers, even for whiners and complainers, God bends close and listens, and sends us what we need. And God’s very own self is the Bearer of the Bread. God says – Take, Eat. Receive the best, my very self. Take some, and pass the loaf. Bread of Heaven, given for you, that you may be fed, and healed and transformed. Come to the Feast. AMEN

Who Put Moses in the Basket?

2011-08-22T21:35:00.001-04:00

Who Put Moses in the Basket?

A new king came along who didn’t know what was in the files, who didn’t care who was who. The new honcho didn’t know the history, and the good service Joseph had given to the regime. All he knew was that there were a lot of Joseph’s people. They were everywhere, and they were growing in numbers. And they were foreigners, guest workers, useful but they had no official status. No standing in the land of Egypt. Their loyalty was questionable. The king was anxious, worried. What if they were invaded. Would Joseph’s people play ball? Would they serve the Egyptians or would they try to overturn the government, try to escape? The escape of the guest workers would be the worst calamity because the wealth of the regime depended on their work. The bottom of the social ladder are devoted to building monuments for the super rich.

The King has a plan – work them so hard they won’t have time to organize. Work them so long they wont have the energy to reflect on their grievances. Work them to the bone so that they will be exhausted, too exhausted to love each other, and grow their families. They were assigned to build supply cities – great cities with great store houses. The ruling class needed a place to store their wealth, places to hold the good until the market price was right and the biggest profit could be made. The ruthless taskmasters drove the workers hard, but that wasn’t enough to keep them in line.

The King’s next plan – control the population. A little quiet genocide. The midwives were ordered to kill the newborn boys. But they had the courage to disregard that Royal command. Somehow the population of children continued to grow. When they were called in for questioning they didn’t confess, and they didn’t rat out anyone else. Shiprah and Puah told the King what he already believed – these foreigners are strong and vigorous, and they are multiplying.

The King’s next plan – send in the militia. He orders his men to grab the baby boys from their parents arms and throw them in to the river, drown the lot of them. This seems to be an effective strategy because desperate parents are trying to protect their very vulnerable infants. One nameless mother had a bonnie lad that she nursed tenderly until he got too big, to boisterous to safely hide from the marauding militia.

This loving, clever mother made a plan of her own. She made a basket safe, waterproof and comfortable, and put her dear child inside. She took it to the edge of the river, and set the boy’s sister to watch over him. She must have known when the King’s daughter came to the river, and what part of the river she favored. She must have known her little boy’s only chance was to come under the protection of the rich and powerful. She must have had a hint that the King’s daughter was a woman of courage and compassion. This desperate mother must have known that the only way to save her little boy’s life was to surrender him to the same regime that was trying to kill him. And her plan worked.

So who put baby Moses in the basket? If he didn’t belong to a class of nobodies, a community of landless stateless folks, immigrants with no legal status, he wouldn’t be at risk of death. The people who make the rules about who belongs and whose life is worth while put him in the basket in the river of death. The people who needed complacent and compliant farm laborers and construction workers to maintain their standard of living put him in the basket in the river of death. The people in uniform who followed orders directing them to murder defenseless babies put him in the basket in the river of death.

And Shiprah and Puah who defied the King and lived gave courage to desperate parents put him in that basket in the river of life. The mother who carefully crafted his little ark, and carefully set it on the edge of reeds where he had a hope of liberation, that faithful mom put her babe in a basket in the river of life. The sister who stood alert and watched, and danced for joy when an agent of salvation came along, she made sure that the basket was in a life giving river. And the princess. She knew the rules, the commands, the directives. She knew score. She knew from the face of that baby boy that he was no Egyptian child. She knew the anxiety in the little girls face, and the relief. The princess drew the baby from the life giving waters, and gave the child back to his mother to be raised. The Princess gave the boy her protection, and gave the family protection, and income. The Princess makes alliance with the nobodies against her father, against her own interests.

And who else put this child in the basket? This whole story is about the way in which a family blessed by God becomes a people blessed by God. No longer is the name of Joseph remembered in the land. But the nobodies remember their ancestors. The nobodies remember the promises made to the adventurous men who were their forefathers, and the courageous women who were their foremothers. The nobodies remembered the Original Blessing – that their God is the God who blessed the whole of creation – blessed ab initio, from the beginning, and blessed again after the Great Flood subsided. The nobodies remember that God’s blessing cannot be hijacked or squelched. The nobodies know that they are the agents of God’s blessing, that through their courageous acts children shall live. If you save one life you save the world. Oscar Schindler knew this. Andre Trocme knew this. Those who sheltered their neighbors in Rwanda and Burundi and Sarajevo knew this. God is in the business of saving the whole blessed and beloved world. And so am I. And so are you. Take courage, and pull a child from the river. AMEN.

God is Good. All the Time.

2011-06-28T08:57:00.004-04:00

Who would have thought that walking around and around and around on a chilly damp June night would be a mountaintop spiritual experience? But they walked, those Trinity Spirit Walkers were a presence in the night.

They remembered those who have fought the battle armed with chemo, and prayer. They remembered those who have survived and who walk along with us. They remember those who are anxious about what battles lie ahead, on our path. They remembered and walked, and raised $500 toward our community's common goal, our Relay for Life.

God Bless these Spirit Filled Walkers, and all those for whom they prayed as they walked.

Summer at Trinity

2011-06-09T11:30:00.004-04:00

We are enjoying the arrival of sunshine, and summer thunderbumpers, and the blooming of the day lillies.

We are enjoying visiting families, and hikes and paddles, even when we don't enjoy the visiting mosquitos.

We rejoice that our space is cool on a Sunday morning when we sing God's praises with the leadership of our summer musician Patricia Granter.

We rejoice that our pies and hot dogs will be for sale on Thursday afternoons in July, a cool spot under the leafy trees during the community Farmer's Market.

Come and see a community alive in God's love. Come and see how sweet God's goodness is.

At the Dawning

2011-04-24T18:50:00.009-04:00

Do you think anyone noticed? He debated in the temple area, and scored points on the religious leaders and they noticed. People with sick children, bent over, bleeding, paralyzed and possessed called out to him, and he healed them and they noticed. The man born blind noticed, and his parents noticed but they were silenced by fear of what would happen if they admitted the truth. Even went the facts cannot be contested, silence can confound truth.

Do you think anyone noticed the arrest, the trial, the execution? He was arrested at night in the place so many country people camped during their visit to the city for the Great Festival. But it was late, it was dark. Most of us don’t like to get involved with ugliness if we can help it. He was dragged through the dark to a damp cell; up all night, beaten, he was dragged in chains to the inner courts of the powerful. The mob – maybe 20 maybe a hundred – demanded his death and so he was dragged outside the walls of the city where ordinary people didn’t have to look at any ugly broken bodies. Do you think anyone, really noticed?

The women noticed. They kept watch from a distance. They paid attention at every step of the journey. Mary Magdalene kept vigil with the others. Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the Crucified One kept vigil. And the mother of the sons of Zebedee – James and John kept vigil. The Mothers did not desert. The mothers did not betray. The mothers did not turn away. They kept long, patient, loving vigil, somehow the mothers had the strength to faithfully do what the men of Jesus family could not do.

The mothers took note and saw where he was buried. The powerful ones who had orchestrated his murder were aware that the community around Jesus had not totally abandoned him. They asked for soldiers to guard the tomb, to keep watch lest something sneaky happen. A platoon was set to watch.

The mothers came back at the dawning of the day. Just as the first glimmers of light were warming the damp earth. They came back to continue their vigil by the grave. As they came to the place where he was laid the land was shaken. The rocks were shaken. The earth cracked and the huge stone began to roll. A like lightening – charged with energy and exploding light and crackling sulfur – a heavenly being came and sat on the stone, and it stopped, the mouth of the grave left gaping. The women of course noticed. They must have been very afraid but they didn’t run. The guards of course noticed. Their worst nightmare had just happened. How were they going to explain this to the commander? They were terrified and fainted dead away.

The Angelic being explains. It is just as he said. He is risen. Don’t you see? Go and tell. Full of joy and fear their hearts pumping, their legs moving, they hurried away. As they ran they had a companion, the Risen One was with them. The Risen One greeted them, and their hearts stopped, they came sat quietly at his nail pierced feet, they were stunned into awed silence, adoration, praise, worship beyond words. The Risen One himself commissions them: Greetings favored ones, go tell my brothers. They themselves will meet me in Galilee. Go and tell them, tell them all.

And so they did. They told their brothers, they told their sons. They told their sisters and neighbors. With boldness they remembered everything he taught them, and they passed on the Good News that God has touched this world in love, and that God’s power is unleashed in setting right the all the betrayers and all the persecutors and all their victims. God’s power is unleashed in this world – and we call that the Reign of God, the Kingdom of God that is now, and that shall be. This Good News proclaims a fresh start, a fresh start for individuals, for families, a good new beginning for whole communities and societies. In Jesus, God has taken action to restore the all that is profoundly broken, so desperately in need of change.

Change is hard, and we humans cling to the things we know even when we know that the way things are is hurting us, killing us. But if nothing changes, nothing changes. The Law and the Prophets have not been able to lead the people of Israel to faithful living. The teaching and the preaching have not been able to help people love God and love one another with their whole heart. Rulers, even the best of them, compromise their principles and fall into corruption. Economic systems, even the best of them, the ones that benefit most folks, are built on the labors of those who are barely able to survive. The human heart is prone to covet security and comfort and to lie to protect our coveting. As it was in the garden, so it is. The whole human system does what it does even when we long for a better life, a life with more integrity.

If nothing changes, nothing changes. So God initiates a change. God touches human history with God’s own presence. Do you think anyone noticed? When one part of the human system begins to change, the whole system notices, and feels it. The system may conspire to cover up the truth - they say the women went to the wrong tomb, they say the disciples stole the body – but something has profoundly changed. Women and men have had an experience that cannot be denied, cannot be covered up. They encountered The Risen One, living proof that God does not abandon those who pursue a life of integrity and love. Beginning from Jerusalem, and Galilee, the whole world hears that the earth has trembled, and something new has begun.

God is with us. Jesus is risen, just as he said. We too pause to adore and praise him and we too are commissioned by the Living Crucified One to arise from the dead, our hearts pounding, our feet running. Come let us live bravely, and boldly, new lives of outrageous generosity and rampant forgiveness. Jesus is risen, and is with us. Let us go and tell our brothers that the Reign of God has come near this place. AMEN

***************

Thanks to Liz and Werner Weber for hosting our 4 am Easter Vigil this day. Thanks to Jim Sims for his photo above, and for his songfilled and spiritfilled companionship of our worshiping community.

Holy Week and Easter at Trinity

2011-04-05T10:23:00.007-04:00

Sunday April 17 – Palm Sunday with Hosannas and the Passion Reading at both 8:00 and 9:30

Monday April 18 – Evening Prayer 5:30 Trinity Church Sanctuary

Tuesday April 19 – Morning Prayer 7:45 Trinity Church Sanctuary

Evening Prayer 5:30 Trinity Church Sanctuary

Wednesday April 20 – Koinonia 9 am – Parlor Evening Prayer 5:30 - Trinity Church Sanctuary Potluck Supper and Koinonia 6:00 – Parlor

Maundy Thursday April 21 – Localvore (something with a local ingredient) Pot Luck Supper 6:00. We remember Jesus feasting with his friends on the night before his arrest with a Table Eucharist in the Parish Hall. Service of Shadows – 7:30 Trinity Church Sanctuary We prepare the sanctuary and our hearts for Good Friday with Psalms, meditative music, silence and the extinguishing of the lights.

Good Friday April 22 – Walking in His Shoes, an Ecumenical Remembrance of the Passion of Jesus 12:00 Noon beginning in Broad Street Park Early Morning Easter Easter Vigil Sunday April 24 starting at 4 am at the home of Liz and Werner Weber, Brownsville VT Moving from midnight to sunrise with Traditional Readings and joyful music we will remember our baptism and celebrate the Resurrection. Breakfast will follow.

Festive Easter Worship with Music, Sunday April 24 8:00 and 9:30 am

Remembering Joan

2011-03-11T08:45:00.003-05:00

Well Joan has had her way again. She has orchestrated a gathering of her huge family of beloved ones. A good Grandmother has gathered the children for one more feast, one more time to laugh and tell stories. And on this day we also weep in each others arms. Joan has orchestrated this gathering in a particular way. Her gift to us this day is to be in this place, gathered around God’s table, bathed in music of our faith tradition. Joan’s gift to us in this experience of many hearts and voices praying together is extraordinary, as it was in days gone by, and it fills our hearts with joy to have been wooed onto holy ground by Joan Simpson. In this sacred moment we stand with her on the border place between Heaven and Earth. On this Ash Wednesday we stand next to the empty tomb of Easter.

It seems like a good time to speak of Heaven, of Resurrection, of the Reign of God that is and that shall be. In Christian tradition we struggle to live the words we pray that the rules of this world, and the rulers of this world, are not in charge. In the Christian family we struggle to live up to our baptismal promises that Jesus and Jesus alone is our way life. Faithful people pray ‘thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.’ We want to be in heaven, to experience heaven. Here and now, and in the age to come. We struggle to understand how, to find the way. The earliest Christians had trouble with this too.

Thomas heard the words of Jesus – do not let your hearts be troubled. I am going to prepare a place for you so that where I am you may be also. Blessed Thomas asks what they are all thinking Where? How? They have walked with him, eaten with him, witnessed healing and seen him affirming the place of women, role of women as equal partners. They have delighted in seeing him jousting with Scribes and Pharisees and always winning the battle. They paid attention to his teaching, and yet they don’t understand where he is going, and how they are to go with him.

Jesus reminds them of what they already know, deep in their hearts I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life. Jesus himself is the road, the journey, the path. Jesus is the signpost to God, the one pointing the direction to heaven. When we practice binding up wounds, and broken hearts and shattered relationships we are walking the way of Jesus. When we let our grief show and weep with our friends, we are walking the way of Jesus. He loved those who betrayed him. He walked the road of forgiveness to the very end. Jesus is the Truth with a big T. All our truths are the small, imperfect and incomplete kind. When we hold our own truths lightly, we can receive more from each other, and together we will see more clearly, more completely the big Truth.

Jesus says I am the Life. The way of heaven is a way of life. And life always requires giving away that which is precious, not just a token of thanks, not just the cost of a ticket to the show.

Life requires pouring our lifeblood, our hearts and our time and our bodies and our treasure into the things that matter. Life requires pouring out what we have for the good of others. The way of heaven invests in hospitals so that they have the capacity to care for the indigent lepers of this world. The way of heaven doesn’t get rattled about which way healing is funded, so long as the lepers can knock on the door, and receive what they need, a tender touch of a nurse whose beautiful face is full of love. The way of heaven is a life dedicated to driving people to chemotherapy. The way of heaven is a person who gets up before the sun and makes scrambled eggs for hungry boys. Day after day after day. The way of heaven is a life dedicated to encouraging new mothers who desperately want to make a good start for their babies.

The way of heaven invests in institutions that can lift our spirits and inspire us. The way of heaven requires an orchestra, a stage, and great beautiful spaces whose red doors swing open welcoming all. The way of heaven invests in the infrastructure needed to make this happen. Art and artists and churches require patrons. And the way of heaven demands singing. The way of heaven insists on Mozart and Bach and Dave Brubeck. The way of heaven, the way of life here and now and in the age to come are intertwined. We who are on the on this side of the road are entreated to walk the way of Jesus make heaven bloom here. We are invited to grow Madonna lilies from the ashes.

So this day I imagine the Heavenly Banquet table is set, and the music is playing. I imagine that at table Joan, much to her delighted astonishment, sits between Florence Nightingale and Angela Davis, and across from her is her beloved Robert deep in conversation with Thelonius Monk. I imagine that down the table a friendly argument is breaking out between Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Roosevelt. I imagine they are all rejoicing that they did their parts as good and faithful servants. I imagine that they wish they had been a little more generous and had laughed a little more. I imagine that they are waiting. Waiting for us to dry our tears, to get on with the work we have been given to do in this world. Joan, we thank you for inviting this day to pay attention to the important things: love, generous love, and life freely given.

Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia

Koinonia - Sharing, Communion and Fellowship

2011-03-01T09:17:00.006-05:00

6-8 Pot Luck Supper and Conversation led by the Rev. Susan Langle

Week 1 Spiritual Life Stories - Weds March 23

-week off-

Week 2 Who is Jesus - Weds April 6

Week 3 God’s Covenant: Garden to Cross

the Hebrew Scriptures – Weds April 13

Week 4 God’s Covenant: Cross to City

the Gospels and Christian Scriptures

Weds April 20

JESUS SAID ...

2011-02-09T08:07:00.001-05:00

I love three things about Facebook: playing Scrabble with Sally Hague, seeing pictures of the littlest kiddo in my family - 18 month old Anthony - and the appearance of Sermon Titles. This week a friend posted a picture that says it all. In Big Orange and White Letters it says: Don’t Go to Church … Be the Church. And pretty much in today’s Gospel Jesus said: Don’t Go to Church … Be the Church.

We are reading our way through the 5th Chapter of the Good News according to Matthew otherwise known as the Sermon on the Mount. People who hear this and who ‘get it’ are changed forever. People who hear Blessed are You – because you are dear to God, and are pure in heart and are kind and loving, you who seek peace and pursue it, you who hunger and thirst and long for righteousness – you shall be filled with justice and mercy. You Blessed ones are the Salt of the Earth. You Blessed ones are the Light of the World.

Today’s installation in Jesus’ Blessing and Commissioning of the agents of the Kingdom of God. This is the ‘how to’ section, how to go about the business of burning with Light and flavoring with Salt. Our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. For example … in how we take responsibility for our actions, how we love our dearest partners, in how we make promises … we are to be people of integrity. God yearns for us to walk upright, and to be exactly who we say we are without pretense. Blessed are you who are pure of heart; YOU shall see God.

Jesus says anger, bullying and name calling are the seeds of murder. And those seeds are in all of us. Anger wells up when we are offended, when we are wronged, when we are injured. We all feel it. Sometimes it’s that righteous anger that a sacred personal boundary has been violated, and that we or someone we love has been wronged and a serious and deep way. Jesus had that kind of anger when the religious authorities were badgering him about healing someone who was desperately ill on the Sabbath. Jesus got really, really mad at people for whom the care of the candlesticks was more important than the care of the children.

But our anger is often not that kind of anger. I get mad at someone who cuts me off in traffic or who takes the parking space I have been carefully guarding at Market Basket. I get mad at someone who doesn’t return my phone calls, or who doesn’t show up at a meeting I have asked for or who doesn’t answer a long long letter. I start to think “Hey! What about me … I am Just a Potted Plant?”[i] My place first in line, my dignity, my position, my authority is injured and I get angry. But its not righteous anger. Sometimes a little bit of jealousy creeps into the anger. Didn’t get the promotion. Didn’t get the scholarship. Don’t have the big house. Don’t have the nice vacations. Cultivated anger blossoms into resentment which grows into fury. As the nurses among us can testify, fury stoked and stoked can damage our hearts. And anger, resentment and fury can flower into genocide. Our anger can kill us, and can kill our neighbors. Its dangerous. We need to pay attention to it and what it is telling us about whether we are truly living a life of love, cultivating that which is important to God.

Jesus says coveting carries the seeds of destruction. Its not just the deed of taking possession of that which is not ours that is the danger. Looking with longing is the beginning of violation of sacred bonds. Looking, and desiring leads to small steps, minor boundary crossings that lead to one more and one more. Most of our wrongdoing is not the major big SINS. Most of our wrongdoing is the step by step kind, waltzing down the slippery slope of deception and self deception until we seem to be in up to our necks. Most of our wrongdoing begins with looking the wrong way because our feet then follow.

Please hold these words of Jesus about adultery along side another story. In the Gospel according to John the scribes and the Pharisees, the same supposedly righteous crowd we hear about today, brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act. They demanded that she be put to death according to custom, according to law. She was guilty. Jesus invited those without sin to cast the first stone and when they slipped away, ashamed, he turned to the woman and said, they have gone, and neither do I condemn you – Go and sin no more. Its hard to start over. Its hard to sin no more.

We intend to be, we would be pure in heart, but too often we find ourselves convicted by our failings and our inadequacy to do the right, to live right. We stand convicted, and in need of God’s mercy, and God’s help to sin no more. One of the things those who would be pure in heart can do is to cultivate an awareness of our own frailty, our own propensity to wrong each other. We can cultivate antennae tuned to notice the wandering of our feet down a path we might not choose if we are honest with ourselves. One of the ways we can cultivate purity of heart to be willing to lay down our gifts at the altar and make amends with one who has something against us.

To be Church, not just go to church, we have to be willing to be agents of reconciliation, we have to be people willing to take the first steps of telling truth and making peace. In the Twelve Step tradition making a fearless moral inventory of our wrongs and making amends whenever possible are essential steps toward recovery. To be whole, to be Church we need to be willing to admit our mistakes and to try to make things right. To be Church we have to be able to admit to ourselves and to our loved ones and our enemies when we are wrong. We have to be willing to hear from each other when our frustration, slights and injury start to bubble with annoyance and anger. We have to be willing to tell our best friend when a joke is racist or sexist for full of slurs that our homophobic culture seems to think humorous. We have to be willing to try to understand each other when we behave badly, when we hurt each other and to practice hearing each other’s confessions and truly offering pardon. The Church is a school for love, and we and we should be thankful that we get so opportunities to practice forgiveness here, and to carry those skills, that experience beyond these walls.

This is not easy. This is not Hallmark brand of love. But it is what Jesus calls us to do, how Jesus calls us to live. And when we do this, our light shines, his light shines. AMEN.
[i] Brendan Sullivan, Esq when sitting next to Oliver North at a Congressional Hearing

Blessed

2011-02-01T11:32:00.005-05:00

Jesus went up to the Mountain. Jesus, an authentic prophet, one who is deeply, deeply connected to God, right with God, one who speaks the authentic Good News of God, Jesus goes up the Mountain. Like Moses before him, Jesus heads uphill. But he is not going up there to escape the crowds pressing on him. He is not going to hide out. He is not going for a bit of quiet time, a little monastery time, a little time to rest in the joy of God’s presence. Yes he does need to be with God regularly, quietly, to be filled up and renewed, but this is NOT one of those times.

As Jesus goes up the mountain he is making space, making room for his disciples to follow him. He walks up the slope, turns around and sits. Would you like to walk with him today? Come on. Put on your hiking boots. Lets go.

Up on the mountain Jesus begins to teach them. And not just the four fishermen he called by name – not just Andrew and Peter, James and John. Whole crowds go with them. Can you imagine hundreds, thousands, millions sitting on the slopes behind us listening to Jesus? Look. There they are and they are eager to hear what Jesus has to say. They get very very quiet.

Blessed are the ones who depend totally on God, who know that everything they have comes from God. Like the birds of the air they count on God to give them their food and a place to sleep. They are so present to what is really going on around them that they are living in the kingdom of heaven right here, right now. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.
Blessed are those who lament that the Kingdom of God has not completely arrived. Blessed are the ones who notice evil, who name injustice, who are paying attention to fact that in this land of great prosperity children are hungry and cold. Blessed are the ones who notice that people sleep in the cold on below zero nights. Their laments are heard. God’s kingdom will come. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are the ones who give up violence as a way of holding on to all they possess. Blessed are the ones who know they will have all they need, and much of what they want, if they give more away to those who have nothing. Blessed are the stewards who share. They will enjoy all the fruits of this fragile earth our island home. They will inherit the whole, beautiful abundant Earth. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are they who do not give up working for justice, in every conflict, in every broken relationship, in every situation. Fairer taxation will happen. The Arc of the Universe bends toward justice. God’s justice will in the end be done. The hunger of those who long for righteousness will be satisfied. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are those who day by day practice mercy and loving kindness. Blessed are the ones who open doors, who help elders across the street, who give musicians a ride home after church. Blessed are the ones who get up before the sun rises to make scrambled eggs. Blessed are they who plow driveways and shovel walks without being noticed. Blessed are the ones who leave soup and flowers on a neighbor’s porch. Blessed are the ones who put their last $20 in the hands of someone whose fuel tank is empty. Mercy begets mercy, which begets mercy. And the God’s mercy shall indeed redeem the world. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are they who walk with integrity. Blessed are they who are totally and exclusively focused on God. Blessed are they who have their priorities straight who don’t worry about what the neighbors think or about saying or doing the things in order to advance careers or gain re-election. Their sight is clear, and they will see God’s hand at work all around them. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are the peacemakers, the reconcilers, the hope bearers. Blessed are these angels who see the possibly of reuniting families broken apart by rage, anger and deep wounds. Blessed are they who teach us to confess our failures, who show us how to ask each others forgiveness, who model letting go. These angels shall be called children of God. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail.

Blessed are you when people reject and exclude you because you follow the way of Jesus. Your power has been noticed. Your willingness to tip over the tables of business as usual has been noticed. You are not given to the world only for the sake of your own salvation. You are called to be an agent of God for the salvation of others. Rejoice. You are doing the work you are given to do. Keep on Way with gladness and singleness of heart. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail

Dear Blessed Church of God. When we are the community God needs us these marks are burned into us – integrity and meekness, mercy and steadfast work for justice. When we are the community God needs us to be we are gift bearers, hope bearers, agents of God for the salvation of others. God’s Shalom is now and God’s Shalom shall prevail. Let it Be.

A Hope Filled Annual Meeting

2011-01-13T10:02:00.002-05:00

On January 9th we gathered to take stock, to celebrate, to look ahead. Reports were provided by the School Breakfast crew, the Altar Guild, our Wardens and our Rector. A financial report for 2010 and the Vestry's Budget for 2011 were presented and endorsed. As we met, and drank coffee and shared nibblets, a slide show of the Saints of Trinity played in the background: a joyful wedding, the junior warden and his wife in their cow costumes, Hands of Friendship welcoming Jacinta, the trees lit up for Jazz on a hot August night, children and children, and Blessed pets.

Last year we invested in an engineering study of our building which showed that 150 years of steady good care leaves us with a beautiful wooden structure that is sound, and in reasonably good repair. He has studied the potential savings of moving winter worship from the Sanctuary to the parish hall. Due to the upgrades in the heating system, it costs us $65 per month to worship in the Church - well worth the modest expense. Junior Warden Geoff Shepherd was commended for standing in a long line of faithful caretakers. Doreen Jevons gave thanks for generous gifts that allowed for the purchase of oil candles for the altar and for new linens.

We have served 841 breakfasts during the fall season and look forward to continuing our breakfast ministry. On several occasions children have felt safe enough to tell us they have had no supper and were then sent off to school with extra snacks. We have Additional volunteers are needed, especially on Tuesday mornings.

the Rev Susan Langle presented a graphic - the Parish Life Cycle - illustrating that the life of our parish is not just worship, not just our ministry of breakfast, but is also our ministry of presence to the community by sharing our space, and our koinonia or fellowship and our commitment to deepen our faith through book groups and bible study. To grow, to be fully alive and full of the joy God intends for us we need to be anchored in this life cycle in more than one place. All Trinity folk are challenged, nudged, invited and tapped on the shoulder to consider where they might grow in love and participation in the coming year.

Jan Cochrane, our Senior Warden offered this Prayer for the upcoming year:

Almighty and ever living God, ruler of all things in heaven and on earth, hear our prayer for this parish family: strengthen the faithful among us, arouse the careless among us and restore the penitent among us. Grant us all things necessary for our common life. Grant us wisdom as we look to future years, receive our thanks for years past on which we have built our present and bring us all be of one heart and mind within our holy church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Of Love Begotten: the Angel and the Unborn

2011-01-05T14:59:00.006-05:00

Christmas Eve December 24, 2010

The waiting is over. The beginning is beginning. Don’t know how you could really be ready, even everything we’ve gone over. There is so much that is unknown. Even by us. Are you excited?

llllllllllll

What! You are not sure you are going? We have worked so long to set the stage, to prepare the way, make all the arrangements. You don’t have a choice!

lllllll

No. NO you don’t.

llllllllll

Alright. So, technically speaking, this cannot begin without your consent. Theoretically you could refuse to go. But you know that would be giving in to despair, to failure. You know that you are the only one who can do this. You know that you have to go yourself. It’s the only way. They need you. They need YOU.

We’ve tried sending lieutenants. We’ve tried sending messages in a bottle. We’ve tried sending water and fire and wind. We’ve considered scrubbing the whole project. Came close once. Just as soon as the new crew got started, just as soon as they and the beasts got their feet on the fresh-washed earth they started the lying, and cursing their children. Always it’s the children who pay the price and then they pass it on to their children.

If there was any chance of success we would even send a spaceship but they would just blow it up. They blow up everything that tries to batter down their hearts. The only chance, the ONLY chance, is for you to go yourself and to woo them.

lllllllllllllll

How are you going to get them to fall in love with you? First off you will start as a baby. Even the most wretched will protect a baby. At least we hope so. We have found two who are willing to try.

llllllll

You know its not a sure bet. They are Human. But we trust them, we have faith that they have what it takes to pull this off. Their hearts are true. They are anchored in Wisdom, they already know you. They will do their best to show you how to be Human. You will learn to laugh and to swim. Oh swimming in a cool lake on a hot summer day is the best part of being human. Swimming, and then a picnic of bread and wine. Just wait. When you have hands and feet you will be able to feel sweetness and joy on a whole new level. And you can have a dog. It’s the best thing we invented - next to them of course.

lllllllllllllllllllll

You are too funny! Why can’t we just send them a dog, a shepherd to get them back on the Holy Way! As if they ever pay attention to a shepherd for any length of time. No. I’m afraid that they need a Shepherd who can speak their language, who can give them the stories they crave to set their hearts right for the long term. They need Love Stories. They need Love to be with them, so that they can touch and hold it, so that they can touch and hold You.

lllllll

That’s right. The touching will be the hard part. Some will touch you with their pain. Mothers will bring their dying children to you and you will have to touch them. Brothers will bring their arguments to you and you will have to touch them, and try to bring them back together. Women who have been used and abused and cursed by their men will come to you. You will have to touch them tenderly with healing, and blessing. Old men who have dreamed dreams of you will come secretly, wondering if you are the One. You will have to touch them, and let them know Love indeed is stronger than death.

lllllllllllllllll

Oh. Didn’t we talk about death? Its part of being human. It happens to all of them and they hate it, they resist it. Sometimes their bodies just wear out. They stop. They fear death so much they use it to curse their enemies. If their hearts are not opened to you they will try to do it to you too. Only when you show them how Love is will they let go of their fear and actually live all the days of their life.

So. Do you think you are ready to try?

llllll

Godspeed. Let it be. As Love was in the beginning, Love is, and Love shall be, ever more and ever more and ever more.

The Voice of the Unborn was heard in the strings of the guitar of James Rollins Sims.

This Homily inspired by Ted Loder "Tracks in the Straw".

Christmas Eve Worship

2010-12-24T09:30:00.002-05:00

Friday December 24

7:30 pm - Carols, Hymns written just for this Celebration, Holy Communion and the singing of Silent Night by candlelight

11:00 pm - Song, Deep Silence, Candles and Holy Communion gathered around the Creche

Gift of Giving Toy Exchange

2010-12-10T12:23:00.005-05:00

Winter is here and the holidays are around the corner,

with today’s challenges, winter clothing and toys can be expensive, this year the 4-H Jaguars of Claremont is sponsoring a different way to exchange gifts and clothing.

As our community grows, so do our children, the clothing drive is a way to bring in your gently used clothing, shoes and coats for adults and children and swap them for gently used new ones. If you are like most parents, you probably have a whole pile (or two) of toys at home that your child doesn’t play with or doesn't even look at anymore. The toy exchange is a great way to get rid of some of those unused toys while picking up some "new" ones that your child might enjoy at no cost. Everyone wins. Your child gets some new playthings while you get some extra space in your house.

This event is FREE. There is no obligation to bring clothing or toys to take one.

Bring your gently used toys and Clothing to our exchange on the day of the event, or you may drop of your donations at the following schools, Maple Ave; Disnard and Bluff; . Mon Dec 13th. - Thursday Dec 16th.

We will also be taking donations at Trinity Church Claremont, Thursday Dec 16th from 6:00-7:30pm and Friday Dec 17th on the day of the event.

How to find new treasures to take home: 1) you can either bring in gently used toys, books and games or swap them for others. 2) Just show up and take home a new treasure or clothing. 3) If you bring items to swap and don't see anything you like, please leave your items and they can benefit the families.

Who benefits? You, other families in our community, the environment. Donations that are needed include: Adult and Children’s clothing, winter boots, shoes and coats.

Toys (please keep all accompanying pieces together in a zip-loc bag); books; movies; stuffed animals, cars and trucks, dolls and dollhouses, building toys, games and puzzles, arts and crafts, baby toys, video games and DVDs. computer software

Any Questions? PLEASE E-MAIL LINDA DAVIES @ ldavies@claremont.k12.nh.us 603-543-4295 or ROBIN WITTEMANN @ greenmountainsunshine@yahoo.com 603-690-5018
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Evermore and Evermore

2010-11-23T11:26:00.011-05:00

We watch. We prepare. We wonder. We huddle.
We hum a little.

Lighting the Advent Candle Sunday by Sunday, 8am and 9:30 with music

Of the Father's Love Begotten Ere the Worlds began to Be
He is Alpha and Omega, he the source, the ending be

Advent Contemplative Eucharist Wednesday December 11 7:00 pm
This shall be a time of listening deeply to the spirit moving over the deep

Of the birth forever blessed, when the Virgin full of grace
Let the heights of heaven adore him, angel hosts his praises sing

Christmas Eve Friday December 24

Festive Eucharist with Carols - Children expected and adored - 7:30 pm

Contemplative Eucharist by Candlelight - 11:00 pm

Christ, to thee with God the Father, and O Holy Ghost to thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be;
honor glory and dominion, and eternal victory. Evermore and Evermore.

First Sunday of Christmas Sunday December 26 -
Festival of Lessons and Carols - 9:30 am

(Divinium Mysterium, Hymn 82, will be sung on Christmas Eve)

Carved Hearts

2010-10-19T09:44:00.002-04:00

I want to talk to you about something tender, something urgent. I want to talk with you about teenage suicide especially the pain that bullied teens face. And we all know that teens coming to terms with their sexuality are at a very tender place. And we all know that teens who come to understand that they are attracted to others of the same gender are vulnerable. But not today. I commend the link sent out on yesterday’s Trinity Tweet, a message from our Bishop posted on Youtube as part of the “It Gets Better Project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPZ5eUrNF24 Next week during coffee hour I invite you to sit down with me and talk about this timely, urgent concern.

This week, I would like to focus on something a little less tender. Let’s talk about tithing. We all know that it’s the biblical expectation yet its so hard to do. The best story Ive ever heard Charles Lafond tell was about a visit several years ago to a small congregation that was, years after our Bishop was elected, still very upset and on the verge of leaving the Episcopal Church. Of course a parish cannot leave the Diocese. People go where the spirit leads them, often sadly, and painfully. When people feel they must go for the sake of their spirit it is our responsibility to send them with our love, and with the Blessing of this Church. People may go, but the parish remains.

Anyway, years ago Charles Lafond visited a troubled parish for a talk on stewardship. One of the unhappy leaders asked him a question about interpretation of scripture on the issue of sexuality. His response was something like: if you take seriously the word of scripture as printed in the Bible, how many of you Tithe? That one question affirmed their faithfulness and challenged it. That one question turned the tide in the congregation and they are today a small community growing more and more loving to each other and to the people around them.

So we are called by God to tithe – to render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and to render unto God what is God’s. And its all God’s. All that we are, all that we have flows from our magnificently giving and loving God. God protected the first flawed humans by making them clothes. God watched over and revealed God’s self to Abraham, and promised him abundant flocks and children in his old age. Sarah laughed, disbelieving and yet God kept the promise. God protected humans, and the beasts, when the Earth was devastated by a flood and set a sign of God’s promise in the sky. God protected the youth in his Technicolor dream coat, abandoned by his brothers and sold into slavery. Through Joseph God’s whole famine stricken family was fed. God protected the abused slaves through the mighty prophet Moses. And in Jeremiah’s time, when the people had again been carried into captivity as a result of their failure to live wise and lovingly, even then God watched over the remnant and renewed the promise of fidelity, of protection, of return to faithfulness.

Through Jeremiah we have these words of hope: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

God claims us again and again. God knows we are stubborn stiff necked people, who have a hard time trusting God’s promise. Jeremiah says that God is going to write the promise not on tablets that need to be carried around and protected and interpreted – tablets that can get stolen or mutilated. God is going to carve the promise on us, on our very hearts. Can we let our hearts be carved?

Can we allow God cut into us, into our busy lives and long long ‘to do’ lists? Can we sit still long enough for God to take a scalpel to the masks that we put on to hide our true selves from people who might not like us if they knew how flawed we are? Can we permit God pierce the barrier that we wrap around our tears so that our pain will not show? Can we let God’s sharp knife of grace open us up to the new life that is ready to burst our from inside if we would only give it a chance?

God knows how hard it is to follow the Way of love. God knows how hard it is for humans to trust in the promises that if we only love each other all shall be well. That is why God sent Jesus, the Way revealed in flesh and blood. That is why God calls us to gather week by week around to hear the Good News and to practice generosity, really practice it. We are gathered to stretch and extend our generosity muscles until they give us some twinges just enough that we know we are alive, and healthy. We gather to share the bread.

This table to which God invites us, is that place where we can let ourselves be stretched and filled with encouragement, joy and comfort. That is why God sends bread for eating, and wine for drinking, God’s very own life poured out for our life. Perhaps God is like the persistent widow, pounding on the door, waiting with longing for our response.

May our hearts might be strengthened to resist the work that doesn’t need to be done, to resist the evil we are tempted to do and to stop the evil done on our behalf. May we who gather at this Holy Table be reminded again that we are forgiven, beloved and free from all that holds us back from doing the work that we are given to do.

May we allow the Cross to be carved on us, letting God’s light shine through us, onto the world. AMEN

Nirvana

2010-09-18T14:55:00.006-04:00

This week one of the dear ones in my life sent me an email with a link to a video. The message called Nirvana urged me to spend 20 minutes and take a look. I promptly deleted it. Perhaps you also get emails from far and wide demanding your urgent attention. Amnesty International’s man in the West Bank writes. Various political activists write. GreenPeace writes. The Diocese of New Hampshire writes. UVIP writes. Every organization you belong to begs your urgent attention. And you may even get Trinity Tweets, and promptly delete them. Its all good, its all urgent, and its too much. To get to Nirvana I think we have to notice it, and receive it, and gently, surely, pass it on.

When I talked to my friend about his email offering he was very disappointed that I didn’t read it so I searched it out and played the little clip of a talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who studies what makes the brains of people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia malfunction. I’ve posted this talk on our parish website. She has a personal stake in the matter. Her brother is one of the 1 to 2% of our neighbors who do not perceive clearly, or process what they are told in an ordered, and ordinary way. People whose brains are affected by schizophrenia have thoughts that get all mixed up; many have delusions that the KGB or CIA or Homeland Security is spying on them, or gravity waves from Venus are controlling them or many other strange and terrifying thoughts.

The left side keeps track of shopping lists, helps us keep organized at work, remembers our childhood home and strategizes for retirement. This is the side the brain that comes up with the brilliant Scrabble plays, the side that sits up and pays attention in French class. This is the side that hears the Word of God and inwardly digests it. The Left side of our brain is stimulated, is fed by study and growing in understanding. Our thinking left brain makes us who we are; who I am, different from you, carrying my own experiences and understanding of how the world works.

The other side of our brain, the right side, thinks in pictures. It knows things through the body. The Right side holds our artist self. If you should talk a walk up Mt. Ascutney road and stop at the stone lookout and see the red and yellow hills all around you, it would be through the right half of your brain that you would experience the river of peace, the expanse of beauty flowing out in front of you.

Through this right side of our brain, through touch and movement we understand our connectedness with all other beings. It is this right side of our brain that comes to know God’s healing and reconciling grace through the smells of the candles, the singing – Gloria, Halle Halle Halle. Blame your right brain when that phrase keeps singing in your ear this week. It is the right side of our brains that is fed through holding out our hands and receiving Bread and Wine, receiving and inwardly digesting the Body of Christ given for us, given that we might be the Body of Christ.

One morning Dr. Bolte Taylor’s own brain started to go awry. She had the unusual and terrifying experience of watching her own consciousness melt, her own brain shut down as she experienced a stroke on the morning of December 10, 1996. In the video she talks about what it was like the morning that one of the blood vessels in the left side of her brain exploded.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s experience of having her left brain shut down resulted in an inability to read numbers, a problem when you know you need to call 911. She was unable to make words to clearly communicate her desperate plight, and her arm stopped moving. But as her left brain stopped working she was able to experience of the wonders of the Right brain. She found bliss, by paying attention to the peaceful power energy flowing all around her. She experienced euphoria of being present and truly alive. She swam in the warm sea of compassion that encompasses everything that is. She experienced a catastrophe that would take 8 years of hard work for a full recovery. She also experienced Nirvana. She noticed. She received. And she is gently passing it on.

Jesus, makes the same invitation to open our arms, and stand in grace. In story of the weasely accountant we hear in the Gospel we read today, the crafty embezzler couldn’t be more surprised. Maybe he thought his sleight of hand would never be discovered. Maybe he woke up in dread every morning thinking this would be the day that his world comes crashing down. Well, there is always a day in which the accounts are inspected and wrongdoing is discovered. We know neither the day nor the hour, but the day judgment inevitably comes.

And our friend’s day has arrived. He is fired - but wait - he isn’t hauled off in chains. He notices that he has been punished, but he is not to be utterly destroyed. What kind of master would refrain from turning over this big time thief to the authorities who would surely mutilate or kill or even worse, send him to the bottom of a ship as a galley slave. What kind of master would refrain from retributive justice, from a punishment that he truly deserved?

Our friend notices the kindness his master has done, and he receives it as an undeserved gift, and he thinks what can he do with this gift of freedom. He decides that he has about a New York minute to make friends with those who owe his master. Quick! Cut your bill in half. You owe olive oil? Take your bill, sit down quickly and make it fifty. You owe wheat? Mark it down to eighty. And when the Master found this out all he could do was laugh.

Just as the younger son squandered, and suffered and lurched home hoping for a place in his father’s barn, here also the one who squandered his honest and honorable position finds himself the object of the Master’s bemused affection. I think that our thieving friend really understood the Master’s generosity. He received the gift of pardon, of freedom, and he shared the wealth. He passed on the unexpected gift of pardon to all those to whom he was connected. He understood that all that is good is shared. For the first time perhaps he was on the side of the mountain, looking out at all that is and feeling that river of peace, that expanse of compassion flowing over him, flowing through him.

The Good News we hear today is that God is tapping us on the shoulder, calling us to account for our failings, our big time thieving and our willingness to squander our one precious life in small and pointless distractions. God is tapping us on the shoulder and saying: just stop it. Stop and look up at all that is beautiful and good, stop and truly see all those beings in whom your life is entwined. Stop and begin again. Open your eyes to notice the gift of this moment. Open your hands and heart to receive it. Wherever you are, you can stand on the mountain and swim in the river of God’s healing grace. Only then will you have the strength to give as you have been given.

So drink deeply of the Spirit that is Love. And then, as you have been loved, go and do likewise.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Welcome Welcome Welcome!

2010-08-23T09:14:00.005-04:00

Jacinta Adongo Otsembo is arriving this week to begin nursing studies at River Valley Community College. She comes from western Kenya, the hill country near the border with Uganda. She longs to serve her community as a medical professional. We have so much to learn from each other.

God Bless Jacinta, and her classmate Daffodil who will be living in Meriden, NH with folks from the Congregational Church. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHWlnJ4NCdg

For more on the project that is sponsoring their studies you can check out:

http://www.wenzikenya.org/

What Holy NOISE!

2010-08-12T17:41:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhkUSkp7F4

Take the A Train

2010-08-08T11:48:00.005-04:00

Take the A Train - Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You must take the A Train. Don’t miss it. It’s the quickest way to get to where you are going – it’s the fast way to Heaven.

The A Train is the Way. The way of joyful, loving service. It’s a way of life, of living. It’s a wedding banquet. Dressed up in your finery. Beads and heels. White shirts. Your dancing shoes on. The A Train is coming, its going to stop here in Claremont. It’s headed for Sugar Hill, that sweet sweet place where its all happening. Sugar Hill, the place of the Heavenly Banquet, that place where the Saints in Light are already swinging to the sound of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Ella Fitgerald and Miles Davis.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Father, Our Father, the Holy One is overflowing with good pleasure. Rejoicing, playing, singing dancing moving – that is what God does, and that is what God wants to give us. Not just any pleasure – God wants to give us GOOD pleasure. The pure delight of being awake to our world, and to each other. Like a child’s wide open eyes when the band sets up and begins to play. Like a child wiggling when the drums and the cymbals call out the beat. Like a child’s biggest beaming smile at the person sitting right behind, who may be a young heart with a wiggling body adorned with white hair.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don’t get distracted by the annoying small stuff. Don’t get distracted by things you cannot do anything about. Don’t get so overwhelmed by the anxiety of the times, so depressed by the misery of the world that you put yourself to sleep with the narcotics of our time – hours of mindless TV, the false glamour of gambling, kegs of beer, or any of the millions of ways we can find to shut off our hearts and brains. If you are asleep you will miss this Train. If you miss this train it will take you a lot longer to get to where you are going.

Jesus reminds us that the Main thing is the Main Thing. The Main thing – Jesus calls us to pay attention and to keep the doors well oiled, ready to open. The Main thing is to live the kingdom life here and now: feeding the hungry, comforting and healing and encouraging the sick, weeping with those who weep and laughing with those who laugh. The Main Thing since before the time of Isaiah: seek justice, rescue the orphan, plead for the widow. The Main thing is to hold on to the knowledge we are God’s beloved children, and called to be Loving Servants of the world God holds so tenderly in the palm of his hand. The Main thing is to be ready to answer the door to whoever is knocking, ready to share the feast that bursts out of our refrigerators.

And did you hear the Beatitude in the Gospel today? Blessed are they that the Master finds with their aprons on, getting on with the work of loving the world. Whole and Holy, and deeply happy. Blessed.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give YOU the kingdom. AMEN

************

"TAKE THE `A` TRAIN"by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Joya Sherrill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnurVNkg62Q

You must take the `A` train to go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem.
If you miss the `A` train you`ll find you`ve missed the quickest way to Harlem.
Hurry, get on, now it`s coming. Listen to those rails a thrumming.
All board! Get on the `A` train. Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem

We are All Connected

2010-06-08T07:45:00.002-04:00

We pray today for the preservation of our natural environment, especially the Gulf of Mexico and the lands and waters it touches: Guide those who labor to contain the oil that endangers the creatures of sea and land; Strengthen those who work to protect them; Have mercy on those whose livelihoods will suffer; Forgive us for our carelessness in using the resources of nature, and give us wisdom and reverence so to manage them in the future, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer for the oil crisis in the Gulf Of Mexico is offered by the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, the Rev. Canon Beverly Gibson, Sub-Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Mobile Alabama, author. For more on the Crisis, and the pastoral response of our Church see www.diocgc.org

Bishop Katherine, an Oceanographer and our Presiding Bishop Reflects on the meaning of the enormous oil spill spreading over the Gulf.
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122724_ENG_HTM.htm

Trinity Sunday

2010-06-01T07:29:00.011-04:00

Trinity as Energy, Light, Vibration

The Music of the Spheres

Blue - Madonna, Theotokos, Labyrnth

- Hildegard of Bingen (1179)
Monastic, Mystic, Theologian

for more about Hildegard

www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html

Trinity as Radical Hospitality,
Interconnectedness, Relationship

Heavenly Messengers visit Abraham and Sarah
The Banquet table, Eucharist, A place for all

Rubelov Russian Iconographer (1410)

for more on this icon:

www.wellsprings.uk.org/rublevs

Trinity as Loving Father, Christ Crucified and
Heavenly Dove. Reredos installed at Trinity Episcopal Church in 1930. This is medeival image of Trinity, rarely seen in an Epsicopal church, is called a gnadensthul or Mercy Seat.

Trinity as Loving Father, Christ Crucified, Heavenly Dove

after an Eastern Icon (installed at Trinity Church 1930)

Confirmation 2010

2010-05-04T07:15:00.003-04:00

Strengthen, O Lord, your servants with your Holy Spirit; empower them for your service; and sustain them all the days of their lives.

God is our Rock, and our Salvation

2010-04-27T09:02:00.003-04:00

The bumper sticker on his last car still proclaims: Barre Rocks.

Rene Sabetto was duly proud to be a stone worker, the son of stone workers. He told us many stories of his youth in and near the quarries. After his adventures, in the Civilian Conservation Corps, seeking work in Worcester during the Great Depression, sent to Japan in the terrible days as the War was ending, after his adventures Rene settled in Claremont with the love of his life. He did enjoy the company of women, especially smart women. He no longer breathed the stone dust but he had an abiding love of the rocky places. Rene knew God to be his Rock, to be his Salvation.

In the last couple of years he framed the stories of his life, preparing a window that will soon light this place. The window has the image of St. Clement, a gentle man so much like our beloved Rene Sabetto. Clement lived in Rome and knew Peter and Paul. He was a gentle bearer of the faith propelled into leadership. He knew everyone in Rome – the folks who ran the city and the folks who made the city work. His gentleness and faithfulness drew people to Christ and he was ordained as the fourth bishop of Rome, a keeper of the keys, a caretaker of the church and its members, just as Peter had served before him. Clement’s one surviving letter is to the fractious group of believers in Corinth. Just as Paul had done before him, St. Clement pleaded with the fractious faithful in Corinth for mutual forbearance, urging them to lives filled with loving kindness. Clement’s loving service in Rome gathered so many to follow the way of Jesus that he was exiled to the stone quarries in what is now Ukraine. There his gentleness and sureness continued to bring more people to the faith. Clement’s ministry was ended only when the authorities tossed him into the sea with an anchor around his neck. Clement’s life is honored in the major strands of the Catholic Christian family – the Roman tradition, the Orthodox tradition and the Anglican Tradition.

Like Clement, Rene’s gentle ways were infused with a quiet, and unshaken faith. He lived the words he prayed, loving his neighbors as himself. He knew Jesus, and followed in the Way. Rene delighted in taking care. Taking care of his daughters, taking care of his friends, taking care of the creatures of the earth. Rene had an awakening about the natural world that he loved so dearly. As he became one of our elders he grew became a caretaker of the creatures rather than a hunter. As in many things he taught, quietly and gently, by example. Rene spent much of his time taking care of this place that he loved so dearly. And he took care us this place, of us who now are its stewards, by finding someone to look after it as passionately and carefully and gently as he did.

Leaving this life quietly and in peace Rene has fallen into the sea of God’s boundless love. He is at one with the Compassionate heart of the universe. Like Clement before him, he leaves the community he loves a blessing. Several months ago, he said this to me, that I might share it with you on this occasion. Rene Sabetto says to the Saints of Claremont: “We don’t have so many people now, but they are such good people, quality people. If we hold together we’ll be all right.” Amen, Rene. We’ll be all right. AMEN

Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos' (We are Marching In the Light of God)

2010-04-19T16:52:00.006-04:00

On April 17th I had the joy of being in Connecticut as Ian Douglas, one of my seminary professors began his ministry as the new bishop of Connecticut. The preacher for this wonderful occasion was Bishop Desmond Tutu. He started his sermon with this joke. So there was a curate, who always preached the same sermon. His supervising priest tried coaxing and coaching, and just plain telling him to cut it out. No matter what he did, no the earnest young priest always found a way to focus on the sacrament of confession. It didn’t matter what the season was. It didn’t matter what the lessons were. Confession seemed to be the only theme the curate could speak about. So the wise old priest assigned the young man to preach on the feast of St. Joseph. A very important celebration in the Roman calendar. So the earnest young priest got up and started his sermon. St. Joseph was a working man. He worked with his hands. He was a carpenter. And he probably built some confessionals ….

And then Bishop Tutu began his own theme, the homily God has given him to preach day in and day out, which is very much the theme of today’s lessons God does not give up on the people God loves. God has been about the work of healing the world ever since things fell apart at the beginning of history. God’s dream is that we humans will God’s loving embrace, and live in peace and joy with our brothers and sisters. God’s dream is that we will become the family God longs for.

Bishop Tutu reminded us of God calling out to particular people, and the whole people of Israel to live beloved lives, to be salt and light to the world. Bishop Tutu traced God’s persistent love for us misfit sinners throughout history, until the time that God came among us in the particular life of Jesus. There were thousands of people who knew Jesus and knew people who knew Jesus. Most of them were ordinary folk, merchants and civil servants, people who worked with their hands to produce commodities others needed. Some of them tended the children and made clothing and grew a garden. Some of them were wealthy. A few provided from their means for the growing group of followers of the Way Jesus showed them.

Very soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus this group of followers expanded. We know this because the Book of Acts tells us that they were persecuted. They were growing in numbers and in boldness. They were living into God’s Promise that the world is being made new. And they were part of making it new. We know that they were growing because they became a threat to the established order. A dead church is no threat to anyone. A church that is alive and growing and full of Loving Boldness gets into trouble.

The names of most of the people who followed the Way were not recorded. Most of our ordinary lives only appear in print when we score a lacrosse goal, or win the lottery or die. But the stories of the early church record mostly the leaders of households, and the missionaries who went out from Jerusalem carrying the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection. Peter and Saul or Paul get a lot of ink, and today we hear the pivotal stories in their lives, and Paul’s story told three different times in the Book of Acts demands our attention.

Breathing fire, Saul is hot on the of a group of extremists who threatened the Jewish way of life. He apparently has a tip about a cell that is operating in Damascus. He gets approval and probably some expense money, and heads off with his posse to Syria. He is on a mission to round up, bind up, and drag back those Jews who have begun to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

On the way a blaze of light stops him dead in his tracks. He is has done his homework. He knows the story of Elijah, and Moses to whom God appeared in a Bolt of Light. He recognizes the presence of God. Saul fell to the ground, just as the women did when they went to the tomb and met the Messengers. Saul recognizes that God has a message for him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” As God so often does, God calls his name. This is personal. This is big.

Saul wants to understand this message. He wants to know “who are you Lord?” He recognizes the Divine presence, and wants to know God’s name. “I am Jesus.” The Great I AM is Jesus. This is an encounter with the living Christ, the Christ he has been calling a lie, a delusion, a scandalous heresy.

Saul feels the stunning heat of surprise and shame. He has devoted his whole life to God, a straight arrow, thinking he was righteous and faithful, but in fact he was completely in the dark. Saul must have had doubts, must have had an inkling that those he was so effectively putting to death might be closer to God that he was. And now his most desperate fear is confirmed: he has spent his whole life persecuting the God he loves. And that persecuted, wounded God never the less redeems and claims him, the betrayer and persecutor. The Voice says “but get up, and go into the city and you will be told what to do.” Stunned, blinded by grief, he can do no other than what his God commands. He gets up, and the men he had been leading to the city with violence in their hearts take him by the hand, and lead him to a house that would take him in on the Street called Straight.

The arrival of the most feared man from Jerusalem was duly noted by the Believers in Damascus. They know that the bounty hunter had arrived with his minions. But God is always doing a new thing. God had redeemed even Saul. God calls Ananias to go to the one whom God has loved, and God called to witness to the power of God’s insistence on forgiveness and loving kindness across the known world. God commands Ananias to befriend the enemy. Summoning up enough trust, Ananias goes to the house, and claims Saul as his brother. Not a neighbor. Not a fellow Jew down on his luck. Not a potential convert or someone who might be useful to the Church. Ananias claims Saul the erstwhile destroyer as his kindred. The family has a new member, a member with the same claim on the affection and support and protection as all the other members of the family. Saul is made welcome in a deep act of radical hospitality. One among many brothers and sisters. Through Ananias Saul receives the light of the Holy Spirit, and is reborn in baptism.

This moment when brothers turn to each other in trust is a moment in which the profound Shalom of God breaks in. Ananias is an agent of God’s mission to make a new family from antagonists. Saul’s willingness to receive a new truth, his willingness to go deeper into life with God begins to repair a breach in the peaceable kingdom. Together these two demonstrate that God does not give up on us. We can count on God’s grace whenever grieving hearts are broken open by failure, infusing energy and intention to lead a new life as we turn once more for our true home. We can count on God’s grace whenever we muster up the courage to give each other another (or a third or fourth) chance to try to live a new life on Straight Street.

Bishop Tutu’s message for our siblings in the Diocese of Connecticut, and for us in this great and faithful Episcopal Church is this: We are One Family. One with those whose lives are shaken apart in Haiti. One with those whose ideas we find peculiar or frightening. One with those who know God by other names. We who are Christian all pray to OUR Father. We are held in God’s unbreakable embrace, each precious. We who know we are Children of this passionate loving God are sent on Mission, are commissioned, to Go and tell our brothers and sisters that God embraces us in a unity that intends to crumble every division, and heal every scar, every wound, every betrayal and heartbreak.

Jesus, still bearing the marks of the nails, appeared to the ones who deserted him. Jesus, out of the tomb, called to the women: go tell my Brothers I am risen. The Persecuted and Executed Jesus appeared to Saul, and commissioned him and those who came after him to Go and Tell everyone the amazing story of God’s unstoppable love. Church, we are One family; Go and spread that Good News. AMEN

Easter Bunnies

2010-04-07T11:54:00.006-04:00

We shall be singing Alleluia for the Great 50 Days of Easter

Risen Indeed!

2010-03-19T08:26:00.004-04:00

Risen Indeed!

Easter Worship in the Episcopal Tradition

The Great Vigil of Easter – 7 pm Saturday April 3

Union Church, Old Church Rd. West Claremont
(All parishes participating and inviting you to join)

Easter Sunday April 4

8:00 and 9:30 am Trinity Church, Broad St. Claremont
9:00 Am Union Church, Old Church Rd, West Claremont
10:00 Am Church of the Epiphany, Cheney St., Newport
11:00 Am St. Luke’s Church, Main St. Charlestown

All are Welcome, No Exceptions

Evensong

2010-03-10T15:17:00.004-05:00

Now comes the day's end, as the sun is setting:

mirror of daybreak, pledge of resurrection;

While in the heavens, choirs of stars appearing

Hallowing the nightfall.

(Mozarabic, 10th Century) (1982 Hymnal, 35)

Resting in the Presence of God

2010-03-01T14:27:00.003-05:00

Resting in the Presence of God
A Service in the Style of Taize

Friday March 5 – 6:00 pm
Thursday March 11 – 6:00 pm
Friday March 19 – 6:00 pm

Let all who enter here be reconciled
Brother with Brother, Sister with Sister, Nation with Nation.

(Entrance, Church of Reconciliation, Taize France)

Not By Bread Alone

2010-02-22T16:15:00.002-05:00

Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your might. Deut 6:4-6, NJSB

Jesus and the Devil are having a debate about the Shema, what has become one of the central prayers of Rabbinic Judiasm. What does God require of one who would live a faithful life? The prayer is found in the Book of Deuteronomy and is part of the last sermon of Moses to the people he has led in good times and in bad, the people who are about to cross over the Jordan without him. Moses implores them to remember who they are, to whom they belong. Moses gives them this prayer to recite as they rise in the morning, and as they go to bed. He instructs them to teach their children. He directs them to integrate these words into their whole lives. They are carved on doorposts. They are written on tiny bits of parchment, folded into tiny boxes and worn on the heads of the faithful, religious jewelry, worn even today by Orthodox Jews as they pray at the Temple Mount.

Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your might.

Jesus and the Devil are having an argument about how much loyalty to God is enough. The story as the Gospel of Luke unfolds it begins with the singing of Angels and a miraculous birth. We then skip thirty years and meet the grown man Jesus going down to be baptized by Jordan John, just like everyone else in Israel. While he is there, something striking happens: the Voice calls him out, and commissions him. The stunned carpenter takes a very long retreat in the desert to try to figure out what this means. No doubt he is praying the Shema as he sits alone in a cave watching the sunrise over the dry Judean hills. No doubt he is praying the Shema as the sun sets and the wild animals come out to prowl. Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your might. As he listens, and prays the Mission becomes clearer to Jesus. He begins to make sense of how HE is to live out the commandment to Love God with everything that he has.

As he begins to get some clarity, his spirit is stronger but his physical reserves are depleted. He is hungry. Now is the opportune time for the Tempter to come and find out if he really means to keep the covenant. The Tempter knows that the whole world would come apart if people really started living the words they pray. This one, this Jesus, is dangerous because he just might succeed. The Tempter has been able to divert humans, beginning with the very first humans, from living faithfully with their God. This one, this Jesus, is going to be a harder case to crack. All the Tempter has to do is to get Jesus to make one little compromise, one little concession. He needs to get Jesus to hedge his bet, to put in place a back up plan, just in case God doesn’t live up to the promise God has made.

The wily Tempter invites Jesus to prove his identity – If you are really are the special one you think you are, you are entitled to feed yourself. You deserve a break today. Have some of the good bread. Jesus is well aware that the people he has known are literally starving to death. If he really is the special one called by God to feed the hungry, why not just – Poof - give everyone the bread they need? This invitation is foiled by Jesus sure knowledge that feeding the body is necessary, is essential, but it is not enough. Miracle Bread whether its magic from stones or Monsanto’s high producing crops that produce no seeds for next year, such Miracle Bread alone is not enough, and Jesus knows this. You shall not feast on bread alone … but on the Word of God. To be truly and faithfully human requires feeding the body but also feeding the soul with the grace, the wisdom, the presence of God. God has always provided Manna. God has always provided comfort and hope even when evil human systems lead to suffering and starvation. God has moved human hearts to help develop sustainable agriculture in places like Haiti. God’s heart responds to the starving when we see with God’s eyes. Sometimes HOPE looks like people sent by Episcopal Relief and Development.

The wily Tempter invites Jesus to take on political power to solve the world’s problems. Jesus can imagine that if he was in charge of the world society could be properly ordered for the good of all. Armies could be disabanded and bombs defused. Fair court systems could be put in place. Corrupt bureaucrats could be replaced by good government. The world would run smoothly. This invitation is foiled by Jesus sure knowledge that justice and mercy come from lives lived well. Only when communities embrace from within lives of loving kindness, lives of self giving for the sake of others can the world’s problems be truly solved. True Justice and Mercy cannot be imposed from the outside. The Tempter too, knows that external controls on selfishness, greed and power lust cannot hold.

Finally the wily Tempter shifts tactics and quotes scripture to support an offer that cant be refused. The Tempter says in effect, why suffer at all, if you are who you say you are. If you leap from the Temple, God’s House, God will surely catch you. If you are beloved of God, God wont let you down. That one is just too much, to close to the heart for Jesus. He just says Begone! He musters all his strength to walk away from that temptation. But that one shall return on another night when Jesus is all alone, in a garden, desperately praying.

We have the same temptations to abandon God’s promises set before us. We are tempted to trust the capacities of science and progress the feed the hungry, without extending ourselves to share what we have with those who are hungry. We are tempted to trust that electing the right people will lead to security and peace, without holding our leaders accountable to care for the least and the lost, without being willing to put more of our resources into the revenue stream that supports the fabric of community, the common good. We are tempted to trust that our cache of acorns is going to be enough to get us through the longest, harshest winter, turning a blind eye to those whose store of acorns has been washed away by the floods. We are tempted to hedge our bets against God’s promises of Abundant Life. We are all tempted to devote our lives to the promises of other gods.

In those moments of temptation let us remember our Prayer: Hear O People of this community of faith: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. Let us strive to support and encourage each other to love our God with everything that we are, with all that we have. Let us passionately dance with our God who loves all that God has created: bodies of water, bodies of snow leopards, newborn babies in makeshift shelters in Haiti. And our God loves us, in spite of our compromises, our weaknesses. We are encouraged by the Loving Holy One to turn away from the temptations that beset us and to start over, to start again, to start fresh.

Our lives of prayer are full of the joy, infused with the whirling, renewing presence of Love. In the dance of love let us not just feel the love. We are to be the love, to act grounded in prayer, grounded in love. Let us be the neighbors the endangered creatures and babies so desperately need us to be. Let us hold fast with all our strength, gentle steely strength tempered with deep kindness. We are called to be a beacon of God’s love in this place. We follow the path of Jesus – to pray, to listen and to act with real, practical love. We are called to let that love shine as far as it will go, deep into the needy heart of this community, and far beyond the city limits.

With Jesus let us pray with our lips, and our lives: Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your might. AMEN

Jazz Mass

2010-02-17T14:49:00.002-05:00

Jazz Mass was full of Joy! The Saints did indeed, march and dance and sing. We got in some terrific Alleluias before putting aside the "A" word for the season of Lent, which begins to today. Thank You Gerry Grimo, and the East Bay Jazz Ensemble. We are looking forward to your next time with us for a Jazzy Alumni Sunday celebration, June 13 2010.

Continuing Help for Haiti

2010-01-30T07:31:00.002-05:00

WOW! On the coldest night of the year more than one hundred dinners were served last night to raise Emergency Assistance funds for Haiti. More than $1,000 were contributed to the effort.

The proceeds will be sent to Episcopal Relief and Development's Haiti Fund later this week.

Blessed are they whose hearts are open, and whose hands are generous.

Images of Faith

2010-01-26T20:15:00.003-05:00

Here is a link to the images on the walls of the Episcopal Cathedral in Haiti. Only one image survives.

http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com

Help for Haiti

2010-01-21T12:47:00.003-05:00

Emergency Relief for Haiti

Spaghetti Supper

Friday January 29

5:30 to 7 pm at Trinity Church
120 Broad Street

Co-Sponsored by

FSC Claremont Youth Center &
Trinity Episcopal Church

Tickets: $8 (under 6 free)

Keeping the Faith

2010-01-21T12:44:00.001-05:00

The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is shaken to bits, but the Bishop and People are living the Gospel, sharing loaves, fishes, bandages and bottles of water.

http://online.wsj.com/video/haitian-church-steps-in-during-wait-for-aid/147A5CEA-4AC2-4BA0-83E0-B24724B2D65A.html

On the Third Day

2010-01-18T11:57:00.001-05:00

On the Third Day

They had been walking together for awhile. In the fullness of time, some would say on the third day, they were tired. They had come about far enough. They tried to live quietly. They tried to follow the rules made by those in power. They mostly tolerated the falling down schools, the poor wages, the wretched health care, the brutality of those riding around in cars with the emblem “Protect and Serve” They knew that motto meant protect the Rich and serve the Masters In the fullness of time, a few at a time, they sat down. They sat down in busses. They sat down at lunch counters. They sat and they marched. And when the police dogs bit them they kept on walking. When the fire hoses knocked them down, they got up and kept on marching. Together they walked. People power on the move. Their willingness to walk together with dignity, carrying their human dignity like a candle in the night, like a light in the darkness, overcame the darkness.

Their ability to walk with dignity came from their willingness to follow the Prince of Peace, the King of Non Violence. Like their ancestors before them, they had heard the white man’s Gospel. They knew the passages from the Apostle Paul: slaves obey your masters. They knew those bits and pieces of the scripture because those were the ones most preached on by the Master’s priests and pastors. Yes they knew those bits from the great preacher Paul. But they knew Jesus too. They knew in their bones the stories of Jesus. The acceptable day of the Lord was here. Jesus was Good News preached to those held captive. Jesus was Liberation to those in bondage. The Good News would not be contained by any attempt of holy men who would pluck out a verse here and there that could be read to keep God’s Beloved sons and daughters in their places of servitude.

On the third day. In the fullness of time. John’s Gospel says that on such a day Jesus and his followers were at a family party. A wedding. A celebration that was as much about social status as it was about personal happiness. This bridegroom finally had enough money to take his place in the community of men who have arrived. He can pay the dowry for a good match. He and his family have invited everyone in the village, and the cousins near and far to come and celebrate. It is a time of eating and drinking and dancing and telling stories. A Mediterranean wedding is the time to renew friendships, and business ties and to solidify the family’s place in the social order. Just about the worst thing that can happen is a breach of hospitality; running out of supplies just when the guests are getting comfortable. And that is exactly what has happened

Mary comes over from the women’s quarters and finds her son. Do something She knows that this social earthquake can be dealt with. He says not now, not yet. With infinite grace and profound confidence she tells the servants: do whatever he asks. Whatever. Anything he asks. She is not fazed by the petulance of his rejection. She is not concerned that anything other than a miracle will happen. As she disappears back to the gathering of women, Jesus calls the servants, and they do exactly what he says.

On the third day, in the fullness of time, what seemed to be impossible suddenly changes. The tipping point is reached and suddenly everything is different. For whom is this miracle offered? Is it offered for the bridegroom who would otherwise face humiliation among those on whom his family’s prosperity depends? Probably. Is this miracle offered for the steward, the book keeper and household manager, the wedding manager who might otherwise take the blame for poor planning? Perhaps. Does this great transformation take place so that the disciples might believe? Yes perhaps, and that is the effect. But I wonder if the changing of the water into wine is for the encouragement of the servants. Perhaps some or all of them are slaves. Each and every one is dependent, at risk, vulnerable to the whims and caprices of those who employ them. If they are discharged and dumped on the street they will likely die.

In the fullness of time God sees with eyes of compassion that God’s beloved are thirsty. Thirsty for survival. Thirsty for respect. Thirsty for a better life for their children. And the Promise of Liberation is among them, among us. The Promise of Liberation is the Word Made Flesh. The Promise of Liberation is Him of whom the wise men and wise women say: Do whatever he tells you.

On this day, our hearts break for men and women in Haiti searching the rubble for their children, for those whose homes and schools and workplaces are crumbles of concrete. We weep with those whose shelter from the scorching sun is a blood drenched sheet. We feel the thirst of those who have nothing to eat or drink. On this day Jesus invites us to look around for some jars and fill them with water. We don’t need to do anything miraculous. Not one of us is Spider Man, Wonder Woman or any other kind of Superhero. We are just ordinary faithful people. In the face of enormous disaster we can be easily overwhelmed by how much suffering we cannot soothe. We are just ordinary faithful people, servants of a compassionate God. We only need to do our little part, to fill up what we have and make it available in the time of need. People power, on the move can move the mountains. God will do the work of converting that water. On the third day, somehow, there is and shall be a trickle of hope, a flicker light, a glimmer of life in the midst of disaster. And the people say: Amen

We are Praying for God's Beloved People of Haiti

2010-01-14T12:40:00.002-05:00

Loving God, inspire by your Holy Spirit all those who are afraid, and whose hope is shaken. Give them a fresh vision of your love, that they may find again what they fear they have lost. Grant them your powerful deliverance; through the One who makes all things new, Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Trinity Church in partnership with the Clarmeont Youth Center will host a Supper to raise funds for Releif desperately needed in Haiti. We strive to love our neighbors in practical as well as prayerful ways.

The Supper will be served on Friday January 29th. More details coming soon.

Avatar: A Subversive Reading of the Bible

2010-01-13T10:41:00.004-05:00

This article by Kwok Pui Lan, professor at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge Massachusetts and a leading contemporary theologian writing and thinking and teaching in the areas of spirituality, liberation theology and christian life in a post colonial world.

Subversive: dissident, revolutionary, disobedient and also ... from a different lens or perspective, reading between the lines, hearing the undertones, turning the other cheek and seeing with a different eye

http://w.religiondispatches.org/blog/mediaculture/2168/avatar:_a_subversive_reading_of_the_bible/

Sacred Stories

2010-01-13T09:54:00.012-05:00

The stories we read, and write, and tell our children matter. This season of bone chilling cold I have been snuggled in with some good ones. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is being marketed as Young Adult fiction but its a novel, a story and I think its an all grown up Jesus story. In a little town outside Munich a family takes in a litte girl who doesnt yet know she is an orphan, daughter of communists taken away in the early years of the reign of the Nazi party. She walks on streets where Jewish families have disappeared. She and her friend are enrolled in the obligatory Hitler Youth groups but resist indoctrination. She and her friend watch as lines of men and women are marched through town on their way to The Camp and she offers a subversive cup of water. The story sings the song of the power of words, the power of kindness, the power of Love.

Lacuna the latest from Barbara Kingsolver - in my opinion the leading contemporary Great American Novelist - is set in Washington DC and Mexico City and Asheville North Carolina in the years before and after WWII. The protagonist comes of age amid Communists and Newspapermen and the household of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo and learns to write stories of empire for an Empire that twists its own history. Kindness and generosity are the only way in which greatness is manifest Living in Casa Trotsky under virtual house arrest, with 24 hour guards and care for who is admitted, Trotsky finally opens the door to the supposed friend who will kill him. "The world revolution waits, while Trotsky gives his full attention to a shallow-thinking but hopeful fellow, because nothing wondrous can come in this world unless it rests on the shoulders of kindness" The protaganist's own words are twisted back as he becomes one of those caught up in the investigations of the House Unamerican Activities Committee. How easy it is for fear to overcome the joyful solidarity that connects us to one another. Coming of age as a person who sees the truth and tells the truth, generously and with kindness, is difficult and essetial for the mending of creation.

Some of us are movie people rather than book people. Here is a take on Avatar the big movie of the season. http://w.religiondispatches.org/blog/mediaculture/2168/avatar Jesus sits with the repo men and tax collectors - people who do the dirty work of the Big Money folk, the Rulers of the Empire. Jesus sits with the dispossessed, folks who have lost their family farms, homes and jobs when they couldnt pay the mortgage. What stories might Jesus tell about the fight over unobtanium or oil?

What stories are you feeding your soul, and the souls of the children in your life?

Night Turns Into Day

2009-12-10T10:37:00.014-05:00

Night Turns Into Day

Long ago the priest had told me

how night becomes day,
How it was like a ripple affect

to everyone in any way,
If you’re quick to help and slow to judge…

always some might say,
You just might see the night turn into day.

I saw two kids running and playing, straight across the park,
I was closing up the shop, and it was getting dark,
They stopped, smiled, gave me a wave, then they ran away,
I’d soon find out how night turns into day.

We must embrace when we’re not the same.
We are here to help one another
Like footprints in the sand, lending a helping hand,

This is how the night turns into day.

Now see children young and old, together having fun,
A youth center under the church, trying to find the sun,
Civic duty, courage, leadership-never hurt anyone,
Together we make the night turn into day.

Children have some choices to make when they’re out of school,
They show up here, ready to live, that’s our greatest tool,
When they learn their work is greater together, than it is apart,
This is how the night turns into day.

We must embrace when we’re not the same.
We are here to help one another
Like footprints in the sand, lending a helping hand,
This is how the night turns into day.

This song was written and performed by Ernie Lemelin on December 2, 2009 as the Bishop and People Celebrated the Joyous Ministry that is unfolding at Trinity. Lemelin is on the staff of Family School Connections which operates the Claremont Youth Center in the basement of Trinity Church.

Practicing Sabbath

2009-11-25T09:06:00.005-05:00

Our friend, neigbor and sister in Christ, the Rev. Marthe Dyner who serves St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Charlestown and Union Church in West Claremont is taking some sabbath time in the next few months.

She will be reflecting on the way contemporary people express spirituality in Public Art. From time to time she will post her reflections at sabbathart.wordpress.com

May Peace Prevail, across the Earth and Throughout the year.

2009-11-19T07:46:00.008-05:00

In connection with International Peace Day, September 21st, the Claremont Lions Club invited students in the Claremont schools to create a visusal expression of the meaning of peace.

Family School Connections, leaders in the installation of the Peace Pole on Trinity Church grounds, supported and facilitated the contest. Annisa Girard is this year's winner of the Lions Peace Poster Contest.

Annisa's beautiful vision of peace has been entered by Doree Russell, president of the Claremont Club, in the Lions Clubs International regional Peace Poster competition

Annisa says: Peace is getting along with everyone and caring to keep the world calm.

Claremont's Church with the Red Doors

2009-11-09T09:17:00.010-05:00

Once upon a time there was a white building. People Gathered.

They sang. They laughed. The rejoiced in their children.

When beloved members of the community died, they wept.

They prayed. Always they prayed. On this spot people have prayed the Book of Common Prayer rich with the Elizabethan English of Thomas Cranmer.

On this spot people prayed before the 1928 Prayerbook was published. On this spot the people wrestled with the 'new' Prayer Book. And they welcomed its fresh language, and its insistence that all the Baptised are the ministers of God.

On this spot, in this place the People of God practiced and practice, and practice still living out our faith.

We welcome people to use the building, and work hard to raise the funds to keep it heated.

We give thanks that the Youth of Claremont find a home in the Teen Center that operates in the basement.

We love making breakfast, especially on cold winter mornings when ten or twenty or forty kids pass through for a bagel and a bit of egg and a cheery word on their way to school.

On October 29, 2009 we gathered for the Chamber of Commerce Breakfast to receive a recognition from our community that our work is visible and appreciated. May there be peace on the earth, and may it begin with us.

Jan Cochrane, Senior Warden of Trinity
Episcopal Church with the Rev. Susan Langle receives , as the Non Profit of the Year along with Alison and Keith Raymond of the Business of the Year, Claremont Glassworks.

Coffee, Solidarity and Eternal Life

2009-10-13T10:57:00.004-04:00

Jesus was heading out on a journey and a man, a very very anxious man, ran up and knelt down in front of him with an urgent question: Good Teacher, Teach Me! What must I do to inherit eternal life? This anxious man runs up to Jesus and wants to know if after all his studying he has got the right answers. He holds his breath as Jesus tells him that he already knows the rules: be don’t kill, don’t betray the ones you love, tell the truth, keep your hands off other people’s stuff, honor your parents. Yes, he says. I’ve done all that. He thinks he’s done what is expected, done what is needful. He is pretty sure he has earned the promised inheritance.

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter’s classmate with the wild red curls, is just this kind of eager student. She stays up late in the library. She reads all her assignments and more. She works hard. In her third year at Hogwarts she gets a charm to help her take two classes at exactly the same time so she can cram in as much learning as possible. She always has her hand up, always one chapter ahead of her classmates.

When I hear this story from the Gospel today I cannot help but see the urgent student is a teenage girl with wild red curls. She is just like I was at that age, eager to be first, to be best.

Jesus smiles. His heart is warmed. He loves eager students, this one in particular. And he says, yes, it is important to live your life by doing no harm. But you must also live your life by doing good. Dear eager one, you who are overflowing with faithful energy, full of eagerness to live a holy life full of integrity, empty your pockets. Unpack your backpack. Put down what you have been carrying around so carefully so that I can give you what you really need, what you really want. And the eager student is startled. Give up the books? Give up the laptop? Give up everything she has?

It is so hard for us to imagine living only on the grace of God. It is so hard for us who have just about everything we need, and almost everything we want, to even imagine the grace of God.

Now I want you to think with me for a few minutes about coffee, that which I NEED first thing in the morning. I want you to think about coffee with me today because this is the beginning of the coffee harvest in Mexico and Central America and in Columbia. Right this moment Juan Valdez and his wife and children and cousins are picking red ripe coffee berries. Much of the coffee we drink is produced by farmers who grow their crops on less than 5 acres. The small trees that produce the coffee cherries are at least four years old before they bear the first crop. Every time a hurricane sweeps through and wipes out the trees the farmers have to start again, hoping to survive very lean years. The small farmers sell their crops to middlemen who remove the outer fruit, wash and ferment them and dry the two beans at the core of the cherry. The coffee beans are then shipped to other middlemen who roast the beans. The roasted beans are then shipped to other middlemen who put the beans on our store shelves, or deliver them to a church office. You can imagine how much the farmer gets to keep from the $1.60 we pay at Java Cup or Dunkin Donuts. Coffee is one of the world’s most volatile commodities. Coffee prices fluctuate wildly and sometimes farmers will have barely enough to live on through the winter after the October harvest is complete.

Over the last 20 years cooperative movement has been growing that helps coffee lovers join hands with coffee producers. One such effort is a New England company called Equal Exchange, www.equalexchange.coop an employee owned and controlled company. Equal Exchange develops long term relationships with democratically operated cooperatives of small farmers throughout the coffee growing areas of Central and South America. The small farmers that participate in this effort own their own farms and without the support of their cooperatives they are as vulnerable as the farmers of Jesus’ time. Small farmers are always on the edge financially. If the crop fails loans taken at the beginning of the season could default. If loans default the land gets bought up and the farmers end up dispossessed or as tenants on their family’s ancestral land. An absentee owner concerned about profits, does not particularly care if the farmer can pay school fees for his children or feed his ninos breakfast. Weather, global markets, corrupt governments are all security threats well beyond the control of hard working coffee farmers. Standing together cooperatively enhances the safety, and the wellbeing of each farmer, and his family and his village.

Equal Exchange gives a fair and dependable price to the farmers helping them to weather the ups and downs of the market cycle. By supporting farmers to gain the tools and equipment to do some of the intermediate processing the farmers keep a bigger share of the value of their crop. By supporting farmers to teach each other practices that qualify their crops for Organic certification they earn more for their labor. Organic coffees are good for the farmers, and good for us. The winter habitat of many of the favorite birds we see in our back yards is the tree canopy over shade grown coffee.

Fair Trade relationships help not only the farmers, they help us. We need to be in relationships of integrity with those who prepare our daily bread, and our daily drink, for our own sake, not just for their sake. God calls us not just to avoid doing harm, but to do good. Jesus invites us to put down the things that separate us – the fairly comfortable, fairly well off – from those who struggle in this world. Jesus invites us to put down those things that support illusion of protection we carry around that we have somehow earned God’s particular benevolence, God’s special protection. Tragedy befalls even the upright. Job’s wealth and his righteousness does not protect him.

Mark Sweet, one of my classmates from the Hogwarts School of Theology, also known as the Episcopal Divinity School, went to work for Equal Exchange right after he graduated from college. That first fall he joined a field visit to a coffee cooperative in a small mountain village in Oaxaca, near the Mexican border with Guatemala. They stayed in a village where there was obviously no reserves to feed visiting dignitaries. The villagers offered the very best that they had, holding nothing back. My observant, anxious friend offered to pay for the banquet that the villagers could clearly not afford.

The leader of the village responded to this well meaning stranger. He said, Senior Dolce, we left our fields two days before you arrived in the midst of the harvest. It is a full day and half walk back to the coffee fields. We put on our best cloths. We opened our homes to you. We fed you the only chickens we have. We did all of this not for you to pay for it – or to have pity on us.

Your presence here is a miracle. Before your arrival we had never seen a white person who did not want to rape our children, take our belongings, take our land or tell us how to live a better life. You and your friends have given us respect and dignity. You have lived in our homes, eaten our food and heard our stories. It is amazing to us that people of such wealth and status in America would go out of their way to be with us. No Senior Dolce, it is we who should thank you. We now have friends and people we can trust. We now have people who can tell our story.

The presence of God, the grace of God in our relationships, our interconnection is that which makes us strong, and alive. Jesus invites us to grow in our openness and vulnerability to God and each other. The Christ looks with love at the eager anxious faith filled student and smiles. He invites us to see the Christ in each other in the only way we humans can do this. The Christ invites us to share our meals, our stories, our joys and sorrows with each other. The Christ invites us to stand next to each other, shoulder to shoulder with those whose backs are against the wall.

In three weeks, on October 24th, we will have a Ham and Bean Supper, a feast, a banquet to raise funds for Episcopal Relief and Development for strategic projects that benefit families struggling to survive on less than $1 per day. The nations of the world and our Church have embraced the Millennium Development Goals as specific people to people efforts to prevent preventable diseases, to teach the children of the world to read, to help women survive child birth and gain skills and capital to feed their babies. We have some Equal Exchange coffee on the way to pour for our guests at this feast. Organic Mind Body and Soul, on its way from Oaxaca.

There is so much we can do in this world to do good. Jesus our Rabbi is smiling at us, his eager and anxious students, and he says come follow me. AMEN

Peace Now, Peace Here

2009-09-21T19:13:00.005-04:00

September 21, 2009

Under the shadow of this mountain, turning golden red, we gather today. In this glorious late summer sun we warm ourselves for the frost to come. We gather today under the wing of the Holy One who pleads at all times and in all places: Let there be Peace upon this beautiful blue planet. We yearn for peace. We weep for peace. We long for peace.

We humans are blessed with imagination. Imagine. We can imagine that which is not yet. We can imagine a world in which the wolves are tamed, and the vulnerable live in safety. We can imagine two steps ahead on the road to peace. We can imagine that tomorrow we will be see down the road a little farther. We can imagine, and we can make it so.

In the name of God I call down a Blessing on this Peace Pole, this sign of our longing, and of our determination. May this Sign of Peace remind us that our hope for peace is a hope for wellbeing of the whole world May the Holy One sustain us in our determination to fill our corner of this world with peace. AMEN

A Baptismal Love Letter

2009-09-10T18:31:00.003-04:00

Dear little child, miracle boy, beloved of your tender fierce mother, and strong proud papa. You are beloved of your aunties and pepes, your kissing cousins who are so excited to meet you for the first time today. Welcome to the waters of life, dear Matthew, the waters that have washed us also, the waters that bind us to Jesus and to one another. Welcome home Matthew. We claim you as our kin,

Dear little child we remember that not so long ago you were very very sick. Like the desperately ill little girl who lived in a Palestinian town near the Mediterranean Sea more than 2000 years ago, you have a mother who will pound on any door to get you what you need. Like that little girl’s mother, your very own mother would not go away quietly if the last best hope for healing stamped not eligible, no insurance, denied on her plea on your behalf. And we would be right there with her, raising the roof to make sure that you got what you need. But by God’s grace your mother didn’t need to argue with the healers. Your mother was able to just love you, and hold you, and pray for you. She and your Dad will remember day you came home from the hospital was one of the happiest days of their lives.

After a bit of a detour, dear one, you are off to a good life. We wonder what you will do with the years in front of you. We wonder if you will engineer cars that run on a fuel that has not yet been invented or write poetry. We wonder if you will sing Figaro’s arias or country and western ballads. We wonder if you will run for Congress or the Boston Marathon. We wonder what you will make of all the things that your parents, and your teachers, and your kinfolk will teach you about what it means to be a human being, and what it means to be a beloved child of God.

Two things we hope you will learn about this day in which you are washed with the waters of Baptism.

First, we hope you learn well that no one is baptized alone. When you see the pictures from this day you will be the focus of attention, you will be the one everyone is cooing over. And so we should, dear Matthew. But even though you are the only person splashed today, you are one of a whole company of saints, past present and yet to come, who have passed through these waters of liberation and new life. Your huge extended family whose last name is Christian has obligations to you, and you to them. We are bound together in God’s love, and through God’s love, and we are responsible loving, and healing as Jesus did.

Matthew, beloved child of God, it is your obligation to make sure that no other person is treated like a dog. Dogs get leftovers. If there is not enough, dogs go hungry. Trips to the vet are optional. Dogs stay home alone whether they like it or not. Matthew, your kindred all across this globe are as beloved of God as you are. It is your mission, and our mission, to love each other tenderly, generously. It is your mission and our mission to have an expansive sense of how our actions affect others for good or for ill. It is your mission, and our mission, to pass the baskets and make sure that the essentials of life are available to everyone: daily bread, safe water, literacy and basic health care. And this is not Mission Impossible. The Reign of God is here, and is coming, and will grow more and more visible when you put your hands and your feet to work to make it so.

The second thing we hope you learn about your baptism today is that the Good News of God’s amazing love needs to be told and that you need to tell it. Healing happens. It happened to you at the beginning of your life and it will happen over and over again. Your first girlfriend will dump you, and maybe the second. People in your family will die. You may have a hard time in school, or meet up with some bullies. God’s grace and the love of your family – the ones sitting next to you and all of us gathered around you today – God’s love and the love of your big ragtag family will get you through whatever tribulations lie ahead. And as you recover, as you overcome, you will discover that Grace opens your ears to hear a new song that you couldn’t hear until life as normal crumbled around you. When you hear that new song, you need to bear witness to the Grace. We have heard it too and we will do our best bear witness to how Grace healed us, and set us free. You, dear Matthew, will have grace stories that the world needs to hear that only you can tell. Open your lips, dear Matthew, and let the grace flow.

Come to the water of life. Come to the Bath of faith. Come, dear Matthew, and take your own special place in the Reign of God.

Wilbur Hodman: Shepherd, Warden and Oak of Righteousness

2009-07-13T10:13:00.006-04:00

July 11, 2009

Today we gather in the Name of the Good Shepherd who knows his flock by name, and who leads his lambs, and gathers the creaky old rams, into the place of protection. Today we gather to ask God to shepherd us through the heart ache of this week. We gather to thank God for the faithful life of one who took seriously the mission and ministry of Jesus, and who to the best of his ability was a shepherd, a faithful warden and an Oak of Righteousness.

A shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He devotes his energy to the care of his community, his country, his family. A shepherd devotes all he has for the good of others. Shepherds need to be brave, and cunning. A smart shepherd is not fearless. A smart shepherd is able to act, to do what needs to be done when he is afraid. A shepherd is willing to go to battle to protect the vulnerable, using his wits. It helps if the shepherd reads a lot. It helps if the shepherd spends enough time with the ones entrusted to his care to really know them, to know when they are likely to get into brambles and to be ready to come to their aid. A smart shepherd is on the lookout for a partner and when he finds her he cherishes her all the days of their life.

In the life of this congregation we have known such an exemplary shepherd. He was for a good long time a Warden, a keeper of the keys. Wardens are charged with assisting the clergy with promoting the general interest of the congregation. Sometimes this means driving long distances over windy roads and coming back with a truckload of Christmas trees. Sometimes this means sitting with your dear friends as they mourn the tragic death of their son. Wardens take care of buildings and grounds, fixing the things that need to be fixed. Wardens provide for what is needed for worship in the Anglican tradition – prayer books, bread and wine and kneelers. Some wardens even make the kneelers. Wardens secure the services of clergy for the edification of the Church, and shepherd the clergy too. In the past 50 years many priests of this parish have been blessed by Wilbur’s good humor and good advice.

The prophecy of Isaiah is that the suffering people of God will be anointed, their wounds bound, their hearts set free. Isaiah speaks to a people in exile longing for home with the assurance that God will make of them mighty oaks. In recent days we have seen photos of Wilbur – tiny, sapling Wilbur in his Navy uniform. Hardly a candidate for the name Mighty Oak. And yet that is so appropriate. An Oak tree sends down deep roots. An Oak of Righteousness is anchored in the life of faith, in the conviction that God will sustain that which God has planted. An Oak grows strong slowly, weathering storms and stress. An Oak of Righteousness provides shade, and a place for the birds to nest, and liberally sprinkles acorns. Righteousness, justice, hope, generosity.

The oak lings of Wilbur’s life are a testimony to the worth, the value, the meaning of his one long and good life. We are privileged to have known him. AMEN

Eulogy for Dad/Wilbur Hodgman July 11, 2009

Good Night, God Bless and We Love You

It is an honor to represent the family in making a few remarks about my father, though thinking about it, I don't know if my sisters and brother and mum are just giving up knowing the blabber-mouth teacher will talk as only teachers do. But I guess I'm in good company because Dad was a talker too. How does one sum up a life in a few words or any words for that matter? It can't be done. So I'll just blabber and blubber and hope that I can capture just a little of the essence of Dad's life.

Dad was a moral man, a simple man, a working man. At the funeral parlor on Thursday my sisters Wendy and Jessie and brother Tony said that his life revolved around family, church and country. For a period of his life, back when he worked at the shoe shops and at Bourdon's, he was the hardest working person we ever knew, working 80 and sometimes 90 hour weeks including a stint of having to start a boiler at Montclare Shoes at 1 or 2 AM every morning after working a 12 hour shift 6 days a week. Never a word of complaint or bitterness--he did it all for his "darling wife," as he referred to Mum, and his children of whom he was so proud. Always for his family. Many a stranger would hear him say, "My son, Tony is a grocery store manager." "My daughter, Wendy, does all the accounts receivable at Joy Manufacturing." "My son Stephen teaches in Australia", "My daughter Jessie is a lawyer." This continued with his 2 daughters-in law, Sharon and Isabelle, 8 wonderful grandchildren, Mark, Lisa, Dylan, Ryan, Molly, Tom, Caitlin and Jeffrey and 2 great grandchildren Mackenzie and Autumn. Ex son-in-law Jack. Soon to be son-in-law, Fran. Jessie's friend Ed. Theresa. Joe. Always so proud.

He was also intensely proud of his service in World War II that featured being part of a very select group of specialists in naval communications 40 feet under the city of London and sending vital information on which the very success of D-Day depended. But he was even prouder of meeting a young service woman in the British Army and making her his wife. Of course, there was a little cunning on his part as he hinted at having rich Bostonian roots to attract her, when the only real roots were those growing in the farm fields of Goshen and Lempster where he grew up and where he brought her home. A sin easily forgotten by Mum as he made her the Duchess of Goshen and Queen of Claremont in his unfailing devotion, complete with bringing fresh flowers to her every week.

He had his little faults and contradictions, we all do, but these only added to his being a New Hampshire Yankee original. As I said he was a moral person. He hated man's inhumanity to man and, yet, he would engage in some pretty un-Christian criticisms. A recent example would be the current President of Iran, of whom he frequently said, "You know what we would have done on the farm--taken him out back and hoss whipped him!" He came from rock ribbed Republican roots but delighted in voting Democrat because he believed in those values and also because he just wanted to aggravate certain family members and town fathers in Lempster and Goshen who expected him to vote Republican.

But when it came down to his true morals, his actions always spoke louder than his words. He and my mother enthusiastically sponsored for 3 years an inner city African American youth from Kansas City involved in the ABC (A Better Chance) program that came to Claremont in 1969. That youth, Hardia Madden, now a successful businessman in Los Angeles, has had a lifelong friendship with both Mum and Dad and credits them with helping turn his life around.

Father David Mchilhiney, former rector here at Trinity, once described Dad at a testimonial for him here as a man who had a "genius for people" He could relate to anyone. He had that gift, as poet Rudyard Kipling said, of one who could "walk with kings nor lose the common touch." I discovered that firsthand one fine summer's day in 1971 when he asked me to help him with a delivery of Bourdon's furniture to a destination in Cornish. I was going into my junior year as an English major at UNH. As we were driving, I said, "I wonder if the weather is going to stay nice." Dad casually replied with a little grin creeping across his face, "I don't know. We'll have to ask J.D." I said, "Who?" "J.D." "Who?" "J.D. Salinger! You're studying literature and you don't know who J. D. Salinger is?" And thus unfolded a wonderful afternoon with the infamous hermit, me and my father who, as it turned out, was the only person at Bourdon's that J.D. would deal with because he was so down to earth and trustworthy. A Yankee original. I'm sure my brother and sisters and mother and others have examples as powerful as mine to illustrate this ability to connect with others and the deep sense of humility, humor, respect and dignity that accompanied this ability .

I promise I won't be too much longer. Here's a list of memories and Wilburisms that some of us remember and all of you I'm sure can appreciate. Early Saturday morning brook trout fishing on one of the infmite number of streams he knew in the area. Trips to Newport every Sunday in the 50's and 60's to share delicious chicken barbeques with his beloved navy friend and brother-in-law, Tony Rzucidlo, Mum's sister Pat and their 3 great children, our childhood cousins and best friends--John, David and Peter. Fun trips to his older brother Frank's farm in Goshen. Working till all hours of the night to tailor dresses and skirts for his daughters' school dances. Rejecting a lucrative job offer in the early 60's at 4 times his Claremont salary to move to a machinist position in Middletown, Connecticut, but deciding the move would be too traumatic for his children. Trying to get his two lazy sons to go out and weed his quarter acre garden on summer mornings. Notices posted around the Hodgman House during his children's wasteful teenage years, "When not in use, turn off the juice! Signed, The Management." Weekly taxiing of Aunt Pat from Newport to Claremont and back so she could do grocery shopping with Mum, her sister. His military commands to his two sons for chores undone, "Number One Son, front and center! Number Two Son, front and center!" The pride and fear of sending his son Tony off to the army in war torn 1968. Earning his GED in 1974 at the age of 47. Helping his children in their new homes with any number of home fix it projects, draperies, upholstering, carpentry, plumbing, car work...you name it this son of the Depression could turn a hand to it. Wonderful trips to Tony and Sharon's in Amsterdam, NY. Family camping trips to Nova Scotia in the 70's and 80's. Enjoyable parties in Wendy and Jack Murray's garage. A trip to Disney World with his whole family thanks to Jack and Wendy. Surviving a scare with cancer in 1983. Opening his home and wallet to Isabelle and me and our young son Mark on our return from Australia in 1985. Cooking the Thanksgiving turkey in 1985 with a little too much sherry much to the disapproval of Mum and the delight of my
visiting Australian friend Marshall. Trips to California to visit Jessie and Bobby. Surviving a heart attack in 1987. Returning to England with Mum to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary thanks to nephew David and the rest of the family's gift. Visits to Isabelle's and my home in Bedford. Holding his grandchildren on his lap and reading to them. Discovering in 2001 that his hearing loss was due to a V2 rocket bomb blast he suffered in London in 1944. In his latter years, reading WWII histories and novels until 5AM and then bringing tea up to Mum at 6AM. Celebrating Mum and his 60th wedding anniversary in 2006. The curious habit he had of ending his statements with a question-- "That was a nice piece of steak, wasn't it, dear?" "I got a good price for that cord of wood, didn't I?" Watching Red Sox games with Mum. Annual family trips to Wells Beach Columbus Day weekend in the 80's, 90's and the new millennium. Chalice bearer for morning communion, vestryman, Senior and Junior Warden in his 59 years of service to Trinity Church. Proud participant in filmmaker Deborah Scranton's award winning 2003 WWII documentary on Goshen war vets, Witness To Silence. Did you catch the last 3 items? We've come full circle--family, church and country. That's pretty much his essence. I think of these words by Ralph Waldo Emerson that I carry around in my wallet, and I think I know by heart..."To laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children. To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty. To find the best in others. To leave the world a little better--whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition. To know that even one life has breathed a little easier because you have lived...this is the meaning of success."

I close with words that Dad ended every one of his many, many nighttime phone calls to his children, their spouses and other family members, "Good night, God Bless and I love you" And so we all say--Dear Husband, Dad, Father-in-Lawood Night, God Bless, and I love you. , Wilbur, Yeoman 2'1 Class, Uncle, Brother, Cousin, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Churchman, Friend--good night, God bless, and we love you.

- Stephen Hodgman

Touching My Father's Keyboard

2009-06-16T16:16:00.003-04:00

It had been many years since our last visit to Kingston. Geoffrey and I live in the State of New Hampshire and are active members of Trinity Church, Claremont NH. Each year when we visited family, Geoff would recall his early love of St. Luke’s church and his family ties to it. He was raised just around the corner (Kings Road) and attended Kingston Grammar School.

This year is special to us, Geoff marks his 70th birthday and this May visit was a reunion of faith and friends.

As we entered the church we were warmly welcomed by: Mrs. Daphne Bevis. The chat began, the years slipped away, Mrs. Bevis ushered Geoff to his “Peace be still” window. Many a Sunday he sat in the pew as a boy, gazing at that window. He recalled the big event of wearing his first pair of long pants into church and sitting – gazing in wonder, at this lovely stained glass window.

Geoff’s grandmother was at the ceremony to lay the corner stone of this beautiful red brick community church where he was baptized, his sister Molly was married there, brother Donald was a server, Auntie Rose Lowrie attended, and his father, Leslie Shepherd on occasion would play the organ. As I watched my Geoffrey touch these keys, we both knew we were here to be a portal to sharing our faith, family, and thanking our Father, for the glory he shares with all of us.
It is our hope that our parish in Claremont, New Hampshire may grow and break bread with our brothers and sisters at St. Luke’s Church, Kingston Upon Thames.

Special thanks to Father Martin Hislop for his personal time and invitations shared with us on 6 May 2009.

Peace - Geoffrey & Judy Shepherd

Godspeed

2009-06-15T11:00:00.003-04:00

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. (Mark 4:30-32)

Hurrah for Summer

2009-06-12T11:10:00.003-04:00

Max gets the last bagel!

Carol Wilson and some of the Breakfast Crew celebrate the end of the School Year early this Friday morning. The young folk will scatter to visit grandparents, summer camp and summer jobs and the many volunteers that make the breakfast possible - shopping, cooking, cleaning up after messy boys - will have a good rest. Come September We will be BAAAK.

How We Do Things

2009-06-09T09:27:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, not long ago, I was sitting in a class on Episcopal Church History with a visiting scholar who happened to be a Bishop from an Anglican Church in a province of Africa. Indeed that fall he was elected Archbishop of his Province and then appointed to serve on an important Anglican body by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This educated, curious, delightful and deeply spiritual man was feeling the heat from some of his peers about even being in the United States, about even talking to people from the 'radical' Episcopal Church. But he was a man accustomed to swim in the deep, tricky, sometimes dangerous and often refreshing waters of grace.

During our class he and I had a great "Aha" moment. In the Episcopal Church, the people and clergy elect our bishops. Aha. In most of the rest of the world Bishops like Judges are appointed by the powers that be. Decisions that should be guided by skill, merit, intellect, character are often affected by politics. Schmoozing those in power, seeking advancement, can be a slippery slope to compromise and caution. But selections, choices, do need to be made.

In our church Bishops must be chosen by the majority of delegates eligible to elect: a majority of delegates from each congregation; a majority of the priests and deacons of the Diocese. A new Bishop must begin with the affirmation of those she or he is to serve. And a new Bishop must begin with the consent of the wider church. We require that a majority of Dioceses represented by their Standing Committees and a majority of Diocesan Bishops consent to the choice of a new Bishop by a Diocese. When an election is close in time to a General Convention where the whole church gathers every 3 years, that body - its Bishops, priests and deacons, and its people are each asked to consent.

Aha. The voice of all the people is heard in the way we choose our bishops. Aha. Not everyone in our Anglican family understands this. Aha. A bishop, any bishop, begins with the support of a majority and often a substantial majority, of the whole church. We make decisions together.

We are a church in which the wisdom of the community is treasured. We are a church that depends on careful, respectful, curious, loving listening to each others' voices. We are a church in which presence is necessary. Our bodies need to be present to each other. It matters that we show up on Sunday to pray together. It matters that we sort yard sale treasures, bake pies, encourage children at the breakfast. It matters not just to our own connection to God; it matters to the life and health of the community we call Trinity. Our minds need to be open to each other. We need to be able to hear each others voices and see each others faces.

In this high tech world, we are a community of Folk who cultivate the art of presence. We are a community of Folk made in the image of the God of Presence. Come join the conversation.

God's Friends

2009-05-17T11:55:00.003-04:00

People known as Christians are called to be Friends. Our commission, our way of being, our manner of life, is to be friends. Recently I signed up for Facebook – part of a technology craze that has included creating three new websites (including this one) for Trinity and our collaborators at Union and St. Luke’s in the last week. Stay tuned for next week’s Buzz from Trinity which will include links to those websites that survive Beta Testing. Through Facebook I connected with some long lost friends.

Facebook takes email to a whole new level. Once you electronically knock on someone’s door and if they agree to be your friend, you can write on your friend’s wall and they can return the favor. Everyone in your network of friends can stay in touch with the goings on of the whole web. I’ve been ‘friended’ numerous times by people I don’t know very well, people I might call acquaintances rather than friends. And yet isn’t that line pretty fuzzy? Once in awhile we fall in friendship at first sight, but generally friends grow on us.

Its been great to see posts from teenagers in the Youth Group at Christ Church Norwich Connecticut where I served last year. I’m getting to see what my colleagues from seminary are reading. I heard about the hate induced vandalism of a UCC Church in Santa Barbara California, where my friend Berkley is a campus minister. Apparently someone took issue with the church sign that read “A Family of Faith for Everyone”.

Being a family is what we treasure about Trinity. There are generations who have worshiped here, and who are still here in the pews today. Among us there are lots of kissing cousins. I think we would be telling the truth to our neighbors if we put on our sign that we are a Family of Faith For Everyone. But I think that Radical Hospitality calls us to live in love beyond our family. We are called, fundamentally, to be friends, to have a open and porous boundary about who belongs in our circle of love, to extend the good things we have – comfort, communion, a place at the table - to all.

In today’s Gospel Jesus changes the status of those who follow him. No longer do I call you servants … but I call you friends. In the Greek culture in which the Gospel according to John was written Friendship was a really big deal. It involved more than just congeniality. Your friends were your peers, or your patrons, the people who affirmed your place in the community, your social standing, your social location. Your friends had obligations to you, and you to them. You had your friends over for dinner. You extended your credit, and your life, for your friends. Friends were the ones you could count on to the end. No wonder the Religious folk were scandalized that Jesus hung around with sinners. No wonder Pilate turned white when the crowds, demanding the execution of Jesus, taunted him by saying “you are no friend of Caesar.”

Our status is not one up and one down, insiders and outsiders, our status is to be friends, companions of in joy and sorrow, focused on God’s world, and the work God calls us to do together. Our responsibility as friends of God, and Friends of God’s Earth, as well as Godly friends of each other is to Love as Jesus Loved.

Love like sunlight is essential to growth, to flourishing, but it has many qualities. The first rays of the day invite Morning Glories to open up. Bright hot noonday sun is essential for the Tomatoes to ripen. Brilliant Sunsets draw us away from our evening chores to stand in awe at the world God’s playfulness with color and texture and shape. CS Lewis describes the kinds of love humans experience in his book The Four Loves.

Affection (storge, στοργή) grows out of just rubbing up against each other. We can have affection for our obnoxious cousin Eddy even if sometimes we don’t like him very much. We can appreciate, tolerate, cherish someone in an affectionate way without wanting to spend all our waking hours with her. Affection comes with being woven into a place, a gathering, being part of a common history. Out of the times and places in which we are friendly true friendships can grow.

In the dance of life many of us are blessed with the love of a life partner. Eros (ἔρως) includes all the passion of the mating dance, the love that bonds two into one. The Love of God is a passionate love for you and me. The Love of God involves our whole being body, mind and spirit. Throughout history God’s embrace of us humans has been compared to the spark and sizzle that connects the Bride and the Bridegroom. Out of such passion new life is born. And God is always giving birth to New Possibilities. But we are not God. Creation does not start with us. We are invited to answer God’s knock on our door, to respond to God’s primordial passionate love of us, and to be God’s friend, to collaborate with God’s fecundity, God’s creativity.

The love of friends (philia, φιλία) is deeper than affection. It requires a common place, a common story but its not about the two friends. Lewis says that friendship has to be focused on a shared purpose. It only exists if it is about something other than the friends themselves. Friendship has been defined as the intimacy of looking together in the same direction. We deeply and truly befriend people who vote differently than we do, people whose soul hums a different tune, because we are woven into the web of the People of God, the Body of Christ. If any one of us drops out of the web, or is pushed out, the web is wounded and damaged. If one of us falls out, there is a hole in the web God is weaving. Filia or loving friendship makes demands on us to be careful and gentle and to speak the truth as we see it in love, knowing that each one of us only has a patch of truth, not the whole truth. Becoming friends helps us grow from casual affection for another person to whom chance connects us, into deeper commitment to the others to whom God connects us.

In the Gospel we read today Jesus commissions his followers, his friends, to work together in the quality of love that can grow into (agapē, ἀγάπη) the outpouring of self. The community of saints including – St Francis and St. Elizabeth of Hungary – illustrated behind the High Altar in our church – lived this life that Jesus invites. It is possible. And Thanks be to God, we have this web of friends here today, and connected to us through time and space to keep us company as we listen for God’s voice, God’s knock on our door, God’s question: Will you be my friend? AMEN

Lucy the Church Dog

2009-05-16T08:33:00.002-04:00

She didn't go to Seminary, she hasn't been baptized, she doesn't even speak the Episcopalian but Lucy is one of our Evangelists. Lucy greets everyone who slows down enough to say hello. She is particularly fond of children in strollers. Lucy puts her head gently on the knee of people in distress. She remembers everyone she meets, especially the folks who give her treaties. Coffee hour is her favorite part of Sunday. She freely and gently offers dog kisses, and tail thumps and - rain, snow or blazing heat not withstanding - Lucy drags our priest out for a walk every two hours.

God's Creation is beautiful, intended for our enjoyment. The cycle of the year with trees spouting and rustling and dropping leaves and the colors on Mt. Ascutney cannot be appreciated from the office or the sanctuary. Lucy reminds us: Glorify the Lord, O beasts of the wild, and all you flocks and herds. O men and women everywhere, glorify the Lord, praise him and highly exalt him forever.

Alive in God's Love

2009-05-16T08:03:00.001-04:00

Trinity Episcopal Church is a community alive in God’s Love extending comfort, communion, worship and education to all.

Founded in 1842 when the City of Claremont moved away from the fertile fields along the Connecticut River to the powerful rapids of the Sugar River, Trinity Church grew with the power of the Industrial Revolution. Many of Trinity’s members have served their neighbors and their nation.

Today we are teachers and nurses, mothers and fathers, grandparents and students. Four days a week we open our doors to serve breakfast to students on their way to Stevens High School and the Middle School. We host networks that are at the heart of our community; NA on Friday and Monday nights; Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts; the Claremont Youth Center from 2-6 every afternoon during the school year.

Our worship life is both rooted in the beauty and richness of Anglican Tradition and alive, as God’s Spirit blows among us. We strive to live in Radical Hospitality and Infinite Respect. All are Welcome in this place.