As I've grown older I find that I'm rethinking my understanding of boredom. It has in my opinion an insidious and seductive nature that can bring out the very worst in us all.
Who among us can forget the great C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters? In the book, Lewis tells the tales of Uncle Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood. The wise old uncle is teaching his young nephew about the ways of their "great enemy" (If you haven't read the book, please understand that Screwtape and Wormwood are demons). Boredom, I believe, could have also been one of Wormwood's teachers. He is a demon who commands the great wealth of gobbling up our time, our resources, our thoughts, and emotions. Indeed, I can't help but think that the billions spent on the entertainment industry thrive in part because of boredom.
Fred Craddock, in one of his many stories makes that clear to me. He told the following story:
Boredom is a preview of death, if not itself a form of death, and when trapped in prolonged boredom, even the most saintly of us will hope for, pray for, or even engineer relief, however demonic. Sincere Sunday worshipers will confess to welcoming in muffled celebration any interruption of the funeral droning. Be honest: Have you ever quietly cheered when a child fell off a pew, a bird flew in a window, the lights went out, the organ wheezed, the sound system picked up police calls, or a dog came down the aisle and curled up to sleep below the pulpit? Passengers on cruise ships, after nine beautiful sunsets and eighty-six invigorating games of shuffleboard, begin to ask the crew hopefully, "Do you think we'll have a storm?"
I recently heard a quiet and passive clergyman tell of his attending the Indianapolis 500. He confessed that after two hours of watching the same cars speed by again and again, the boredom turned him into a degenerate sinner. At first, he said, he simply entertained thoughts of "What if...?"; and his own imagination thrilled him. But soon his boredom demanded more. A car caught on fire. Hurrah! Not until later did he remind himself that he, a Christian minister, had experienced no concern for the driver. But a burning car was not enough; something more dramatic was needed to effect a resurrection from the death of boredom. Voices within him, he admitted, began to call for a smash-up. The demon of boredom had totally transformed him. Shift the scene to a classroom or sanctuary, subject him or you or me to repeated and prolonged boredom, and a similar process begins. For the communicating of the Christian faith, formally or informally, to be boring is not simply "too bad," to be glossed over with the usual "But he is really a genuine fellow," or "But she is very sincere." Boredom works against the faith by provoking contrary thoughts or lulling us to sleep or draping the whole occasion with a pall of indifference and unimportance.
It is terribly interesting to note that Boredom, like many of the powers a Christian stands against, tends to wear us down slowly rather than in an onslaught. We as Christians must be vigilant. It is too easy to slip casually into indifference and even the demonic. We must know ourselves and commend ourselves to God.
Yours for the reign of God,
Fr. Ron
I can expect it like clock work: Each year around the holidays those in need stop by the church to ask for help with one problem or another. And the request are not small most of the time. It used to be that those who asked for help did so in smaller denominations: "Father," they would say, "I just want to give my child a Christmas present." And even if you knew they might be lying to you, how could I argue with that?
Ah, but the request have grown, not only in number but in the amounts. It's no shock to me anymore to have individuals ask for two, three, four hundred dollars or more. Indeed, some come and ask for bills to be paid and then ask for money for groceries! Most rarely say thank you and none have come to worship and given thanks to God.
Do I sound bitter?
I pray I don't because the point of this article is to encourage us all to be as generous as possible...and not just with those whom we think are deserving, but more to the point, generous to those least deserving. Let me explain.
It should be understood by anyone taking up the spiritual discipline of generosity (and while Paul never mentions it I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is a discipline) that you will indeed be taken advantage of on several occasions. This simply goes with the territory. There are those who make a living at doing it and there always will be. However, as Christians our focus should be not so much on catching those who try to take advantage of us, but rather on giving it away. Generosity should be a fault with us: those who come looking for help should expect to receive from us. And why? Because we serve a generous God. All things come from God and we as stewards are just simply passing on that which belongs to God. Never have I been more aware of this than this year. For the first time I've given to those in need until I had nothing more to give. It was a bitter/sweet experience because a few others came and knocked at the door of the church seeking help and I could help them. Indeed, I believe that's where you come in dear reader.
It seems to that if I give and you give and we find others who desire to be generous it may very well be enough. I'm reminded of that story in the Bible in which the boy with two fish and five loaves of barley bread fed thousands. He shared what he had and it was enough...as Jesus broke that bread and gave thanks to God it was enough.
There's an African song that goes: "If you believe and I believe and we together pray The Holy Spirit must come down and set God's people free." I don't know about you, but I do believe God dreams of a world free from want. If we share, if we all share, it will be enough.
One more story before I close this rather long winded blog.
Fred Craddock shares a great story about generosity in his book Craddock Stories. I'll conclude with it because I belive the church asks us to pledge not so that it can simply soak up our money, but that it might redistribute the wealth of God's kingdom to those in need. Here's the story:
My mother took us to church and Sunday school; my father didn't go. He complained about Sunday dinner being late whe she came home. Sometimes the preacher would call, and my father would say, "I know what the church wants. Church doesn't care about me. Church wants another name, another pledge, another name, another pledge. Right? Isn't that the name of it? Another name, another pledge." That's what he always said.
Sometimes we'd have a revival. Pastor would bring the evangelist and say to the evangelist, "There's one now, sic him, get him," and my father would say the same thing. Every time, my mother in the kitchen, always neverous, in fear of flaring tempers, of somebody being hurt. And always my father said, "The church doesn't care about me. The church wants another name and another pledge." I guess I heard it a thousand times.
One time he didn't say it He was in the veteran's hospital, and he was down to seventy-three pounds. They'd taken out his throat, and said, "It's too late." They put in a metal tube, and X rays burned him to pieces. I flew to see him. He couldn't speak, couldn't eat. I looked around the room, potted plants and cut flowers on all the windowsills, a stack of cards twenty inches deep beside his bed. And even that tray where they put food, if you can eat, on that was a flower. And all the flowers beside the bed, every card, every blossom, were from persons or groups from the church.
He saqw me read a card. He could not speak, so he took a Kleenex box and wrote on the side of it a line fromShakespeare. If he had not written this line, I would not tell you this story. He wrote: "In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story."
I said, "What is your story, Daddy?"
And he wrote, "I was wrong."
Yours for the reign of God,
Fr. Ron
If you go to the St. Clare's web site, you'll see at the top of the first page a phrase, which I imagine most people gloss over. The webmaster, who also happens to be our choirmaster, liked it because I use to keep it on my desk. The phrase goes like this: "No borders on faith, no boundaries on hope, no limits on love." It's something I thought up as I began to think about a vision statement for our congregation. It speaks to me about about the ubiquitious nature of God, and equally important, the ubiquitous nature of the work of the church.
Let me make my point. Homletics Magazine recently published an article on a similar subject but from an entirely different perspective. Here's a story from the article: Back in 2001, the president of Sony Corporation was thinking about the future of his company, and he was envisioning how, in just a few years, the electronic gadgets that we use every day — from computers to cell phones to global positioning systems to other digital devices — were increasingly going to be able to communicate with each other and pass information from one platform to another.
In fact, he pictured putting wireless devices on or in everything that moves by itself — from our pets to our children to our senior citizens — and in everything that is handled, including the products on store shelves and in our homes. In those cases, he was thinking of super-small chips that use radio-frequency identification technology that can be imbedded in almost anything and can “talk” to computers and other devices. Eventually, for example, chips imbedded in items such as milk cartons will be able, we’re told, to notify the refrigerator when their expiration dates have passed. And, of course, he was thinking about what role Sony could play in all of that.
Now a lot of what he thought about is already coming to pass, thanks to many electronic companies, including but not limited to Sony. But when the Sony leader was thinking about all of this, he was seeking a term to describe the direction he wanted the company to go. He considered the word “network” but rejected that because it sounded too much like hardware, and he also thought of “mobile” but didn’t like that because it was too limiting.
His own language was Japanese, but finally, he thought of the English word “ubiquity.” He was drawn to that in part because he’d heard that it originally meant “God is everywhere,” and he liked the idea of his company’s products being thought of as also being everywhere. Thus, in his company, he began pushing the “ubiquitous value network.”
It wasn’t long before other electronic companies jumped on that word, too, and it came to be understood as a vision where everything — from rutabagas to residents to rubbish — is linked to a network that is accessible from anywhere. By 2004, one of our nation’s largest economic daily newspapers stated that the word was appearing in their pages about once every other day. Ubiquitous was fast becoming, well, ubiquitous.
That's fine for companies, but what about the church?
Simply this: that the work of church is two edged. On the one hand it is ubiquitous; the world is our mission field and there is no place that the good news should not be spread. Wherever the people of God show up, there also should be the good news of God in Christ. However, unlike the ubiquitous nature of Sony, the church is less concerned about being everywhere so much as sharing the good news that God meets us right where we are. This is part of the unique joy of Christmas. The church is less concerend that we can access God 24/7 so much as it is so good to know that God meets us where we are. The work of the church is both ubiquitous and specific.
Yours for the reign of God,
Ron
“It seems to me,” began my spiritual director, “that you have issues around forgiveness that need to be addressed.” He hit me right where I live. Forgiveness is the one element that with out which there is little hope in the world. I’ve written about it, pray about it, talk about it, and now here is my spiritual director, a monk of the Order of Holy Cross, calling me out on that which I’ve strived so hard to live out.
“You know,” he continued, “anger is like poison to the body of Christ. You may not think you’re hurting anyone by staying angry, but really your hurting the other person and yourself.” The self part I knew he had right. While anger is a natural part of the human condition, anger unreleased and unrepentant is toxic, and not just to the individual, but to the body of Christ. Whether we accept it or not, we are all connected to one another. This is especially true for Christians. We are reminded of this every time we hold a baptism, every time we recite the baptismal covenant.
Furthermore, after a moment of reflection, I knew that he was correct about hurting the person we are angry with too. He was thinking more about Zen when he made the comment. I on the other hand reflected on the work of Ed Friedman, the author of the book Generation to Generation.
In his work, Friedman establishes the boundaries of what is known as “Systems Theory.” One of the tenets of the theory is that emotions are like magnetic fields…you can’t see them, but they are out there and they have power. Emotions have the power to heal and to hurt no matter how great the distance. And so, my wise spiritual director was right...painfully right.
What does one do with unrepentant anger? Repent. My director’s suggestion goes like this: “Say in your prayers through God to the one whom you are angry at, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.’ And then, give thanks to God.” Now, most of us could care less about saying any of this…we are angry and with reason…just reason. However, recall what was written earlier: this stuff is toxic! If you find yourself where I have been (note the past tense) let it go!
Some may ask, “Why are you sharing this?” Consider it another tool in your spiritual tool box, a help in bring you and the body of Christ to deeper health. Indeed, this might make for a good Lenten discipline (which is early February). God’s blessings on the journey towards forgiveness.
Yours for the reign of God,
Fr. Ron
Here's a thought: what if for this Christmas instead of spending all your money, going deeply into debt, and over indulging in all the unhealthy ways we tend to indulge at this time of year, we instead gave the gift of ourselves? While the idea is not unique it has never the less created a movement I believe worth taking on for years to come.
Called "The Advent Conspiracy" (www.adventconspiracy.org) their mission is to "restore the scandal of Christmas by worshiping Jesus through compassion, not consumption." The Advent Conspiracy challenges us to give gifts that are relational rather than "another gift that will be forgotten in six months."
I first heard about this organization through a sermon given by our seminarian, Richard Burden. And interestingly enough it tied right in with a question that our Senior High Youth group (known as "The Edge") asked of me. The question? Namely this: If you had six months to live, how would you spend it?" I told them that I would spend quality time with the people I love and that I would also want reconcile with those that I did not." The Advent Conspiracy takes end of life question and makes it a whole life approach. In essences says its video "God took the treasures of heaven and distrubited it to the world." No, we are not talking toys, but the kinds of gifts that life sustaining and spirit fulfilling: joy, peace, hope, love, you get the idea.
Furthermore, the initial video found at the website says that "God's greatest gift was relational...the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ." Have I peaked your interest yet?
Naturally, I've signed the congregation of St. Clare's up as a supporter. Spiritually it may be way outside our comfort zone, but then the gospel usually is.
Yours for the reign of God,
Ron
“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.” –Luke 1:13b
The Christmas Eve reading of the gospel is surprisingly difficult. Both Elizabeth and Zechariah had given up the hope of ever having a child. And then, when the flame of hope seemed to be nothing more than dead embers, along comes God, full of surprise, raising hope anew, filling their emptiness with possibility. Their story, like the story of Abraham and Sarah, speaks eloquently about God’s Spirit working hope in the human condition.
On the one hand, the suffering we experience as human beings cannot be dismissed. Disappointments come, shame finds its way to each of us, dreams die bitterly, pain and suffering can round out the days, weeks, years. Christian hope does not dismiss what we are experiencing, but rather holds our suffering in tension with the divine love of God. Elizabeth and Zechariah, in spite of their pain, never gave up on God and God never gave up on them. Indeed, God’s response to them was more than they could possibly imagine; not only did Elizabeth have a child, but she gave birth in old age. How like God to surprise them and us when we least expect to be joyfully surprised? And not just surprise us, but through the surprise make us coworkers of hope in the world.
Author Earl S. Scott in an except from 100 Meditations on Hope shared a story which encapsulates the matter:
“One night I was awaken by pain, and while lying in darkness I heard the birds announced the coming of dawn. Possibly the pain or drowsiness kept me from seeing the coming of the new day, but those little birds saw it. Likewise in a world of suffering and spiritual lethargy, there is a great need for Christians who with characteristic hopefulness can see the dawn from afar, and who may be coworkers with God for the building of a new world.”
Hope beyond Elizabeth and Zechariah’s dreams, hope for humanity with the birth of a child, hope in our everyday sufferings; God is constantly at work redeeming, renewing, and refreshing.
Dear Friends of God,
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I believe it is a great reminder to teach our children how to be thankful.
As parents we want the very best for our children. Indeed, one of the reasons parents send their children to St. Clare’s Preschool is because they want to equip them with the best of all possible education, one that takes into consideration the whole person and not just academics. With that in mind, why not teach them to be thankful to God?
Gratitude is a character trait that helps to round out the wholeness of our person. When our children learn gratitude they also learn about generosity. And, when they learn about generosity the world is the better for it.
Furthermore, all good things come from God. Marian Wright Edelman, CDF President and Founder once said, “The service I give is the rent I pay for the life God has given to me!” Edelman understands that even her very life is a good gift from God. Shouldn’t our children as well? Why wouldn’t we want our children to know how to thank God sincerely, graciously, and with deep appreciation?
Finally, if we want our children to know what it means to be happy then we’ll teach them how to give thanks. “The most important component of happiness, by far — there isn’t a close second — is gratitude,” said Dennis Prager to television interviewer Larry King. “Nothing instills gratitude as much as religion and prayer done correctly. Prayer is a major vehicle to gratitude. Not request prayer, grateful prayer: Thank you, God. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, the day of gratitude to God.”
So there you have it. May your Thanksgiving be rich, deep, and full of gratitude.
Yours for the reign of God,
Fr. Ron Culmer
The following is a series of videos which is sponsered by Barbara Crafton's website. Father Matthew is a priest of the Episcopal Church and his clips are cool in a funky sort of way. He takes a relevant issue and makes it approachable. Enjoy!
The following sermon was written by the Archdeacon of Dublin, a man who is a member of the International Knightly Order of Saint George (which I happen to be one myself). Indeed, the whole reason for my becoming a part of this organization is that with them I am apart of yet another layer of humanity that seeks to live out the good news of God in Christ, loving our neighbors as ourselves. The connentions matter. In this life it is easy to gain a rather myopic view of how things are...and that view can lead us down a path of hopelesness. However, when we are connected to others who also strive to serve together, then the works seems easier, even joyful! I can't help but imagine that's part of what Jesus was talking about when he said "My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
For those who wonder about the picture, it's simply the knightly order striving to do more charitable work. Here is our prior in his own words:
Saturday 26th May 2007
Order of St George
The Archdeacon of Dublin
Venerable David Pierpoint KStG
In today’s Gospel reading, from Saint Luke we hear how Jesus spoke to John the Baptist’s disciples to tell John what they had seen. The good works of others: The blind receive their sight. The deaf were able to hear
The dumb were able to speak. The lame were able to walk. And the dead were raised to life. In essence this was the ministry of service to others.
In another story of the good Samaritan, one translation asks which one was a neighbour to the man who fell among thieves. Now I am no Greek scholar but the Greek phrase used by St Luke, should really be translated –“which of these three became a neighbour to the man who fell among thieves. The Samaritan became a neighbour because he cared about someone in trouble and did something practical to help. That is exactly what this most illustrious Order of Saint George is all about - service to others. It is not simply being a neighbour or friend to those in need, but it is actually becoming that neighbour or friend of the marginalised in society.
As individuals, we have a responsibility to care for the most vulnerable in society but as an international order we must also show solidarity with those in need through our various priories scattered throughout the world.
We must put the spirit of service first as Jesus did in his earthly ministry.
The gospels make it abundantly clear that at the outset of his ministry, Jesus began not by making speeches or issuing directives but by giving service in practical terms to the disadvantaged and poor in society.
The motto of Rotary International is “Service above Self”.
To the best of my knowledge there is no motto for our Order of Saint George, but its aims are to assist the needy both mentally and materially and to uphold the chivalric code of prowess, justice, loyalty, defence, courage, faith and humility. As Knights and Dames of this order we must provide a service to humanity in supporting the underprivileged and all those in need.
The Christian and Jewish laws speak of duty to love our neighbour as ourselves. May I suggest that this order to which we belong and to which our new postulants will shortly pledge allegiance, should set our sights even higher than the Jewish and Christian laws. We should love our neighbour above ourselves.
As we do each year we gather in this ancient Christian place of worship where the supreme symbol of service is seen as a body hanging on a cross.
This should be an eternal reminder to all of us that our service to those in need is not just a little bit of kindness but something more costly. A service of selflessness.
The more I look at the world in which we live, the more I see that self interest is the great disease which afflicts us all. Just suppose that the aims of this order were to be taken seriously by others in society, for example politicians, church leaders, industrialists. Politicians devoted to service above party politics; church leaders devoted to service above church protocol and industrialists devoted to service above self gain - all of these devoted to service above personal self interest or advancements. Would this not mark the beginning of a just society? I am not saying that we are not all decent men and women I’m sure we are, prepared to lend a hand to those in need or to subscribe to charitable works when asked to do so. We in this order have that reputation and thank God for it but we must beware of being caught up in self righteousness or of advancement in life.
The aims and objectives of this great order are precisely what this world badly needs: charity, selflessness, respect, obedience, loyalty and above all service to others. These powerful ideals we will all soon be reminded of when the Grand Master invests new Knights and Dames. However such ideals must move off the printed page in two our actions. Our actions must then be translated into the affairs of society, family life, education and all aspects of our day to day lives in which we are intimately involved.
And who can say what a difference that might make in generations to come?
We shall not be there to see it but our grandchildren will.
Today I pray that their world will be a better one than ours - better perhaps because we have upheld our obligations and maybe even better because we actually believe the prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola;
Teach us good Lord to serve thee as thou deservest:
To give and not to count the cost: To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest: To labour and not to ask for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do thy will. Amen
Adapted from an essay by Garrison Keillor)
We make fun of Episcopalians for their blandness, their excessive calm,
their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed and also for their secret
fondness for macaroni and cheese. But nobody sings like them. If you
were to ask an audience in Des Moines, a relatively Episcopalianless place, to sing along on the chorus of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear . But if you do this among Episcopalians, they'd smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach!.....And down the road!
Many Episcopalians are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony, a
talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto or tenor or
bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your little head against
that person's rib cage. It's natural for Episcopalians to sing in harmony. We
are too modest to be soloists, too worldly to sing in unison. When you're
singing in the key of C and you slide into the A7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you, it's an emotionally fulfilling moment. By our joining in
harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.
I do believe this, people: Episcopalians, who love to sing in four-part
harmony are the sort of people you could call up when you're in deep
distress. If you are dying, they will comfort you. If you are lonely, they'll talk to you. And if you are hungry, they'll give you tuna salad!
Episcopalians believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray
out loud. Episcopalians like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.
Episcopalians believe their rectors will visit them in the hospital, even if
they don't notify them that they are there. Episcopalians usually follow the
official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.
Episcopalians believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially
during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.
Episcopalians feel that applauding for their children's choirs will not make
the kids too proud and conceited.
Episcopalians think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle
while passing the peace.
Episcopalians drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.
Episcopalians feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.
Episcopalians are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.
Episcopalians still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the
season and Episcopalians believe that it is OK to poke fun at
themselves and never take themselves too seriously.
And finally, you know you are a Episcopalian when:
-It's 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the
service.
-You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as
you can.
-Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee.
- When you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, "May the Force be with
you," and you respond, "and also with you."
